[MXZ]

Hi,

In HK do students in full time education pay tax? In the UK if you're in recognised full time education and you have a job, you don't have to pay tax although you do still have to pay national insurance (presumably MPF here).

I've looked at the IRD site, and apart from being able to claim tax relief on education expenses and allowing parents to claim if their children are in full time education, I can't find any details.

I'm guessing this is either because there is no tax relief apart from what I previously mentioned or I'm missing something obvious?

[IMO]

Hi MXZ,

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but from what I understand of UK tax, full time students are still are subject to tax (HM Revenue & Customs: Students: Working in term time and the holidays) unless:

- they are sponsored by their employer as part of a sandwich courses and do not receive funds that exceed a certain limit; or
- their total income for the tax year doesn't exceed their personal allowance, although they can elect not to pay tax on a PAYE basis (e.g. HM Revenue & Customs: Students: Working only in the holidays while being a student).

In that sense, I think that the second option is similar in HK - earnings are not subject to PAYE tax, you receive it gross. If you don't exceed the basic allowance (HK$108k for 08/09 tax year I think) - you don't pay tax.

NICs are chargeable as you go, so you can get a situation for instance, where income for the overall year is less than the personal allowance, so no tax is paid, but NICs are - if the weekly/monthy income when it was earned exceeds the threshold.

Nonetheless, MPF is similar, but there are quite a few exemptions - see http://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/f...s/docs/mpf.pdf for more details.

[MXZ]

Hi IMO,

Thanks for posting back and doing all of that research. I must admit my basis for saying "no tax for students in full time education" was based on what the students I know have said. Clearly they are mistaken

Still, being able to pay for the course and get that tax free is pretty nice. Every little helps