[Geraldmu]

Hello there,

First time I am submitting tax return in HK and would like to seek advise on what is the most advantageous approach for the rental reimbursement portion. I will be submitting the tax return through ESDlife and I either just submit the total rental reimbursement or with a "Rateable value".

For example, if income accruing for the taxable period is HKD800,000 and total rental reimbursements is 100,000. Question is, should I just report the above or together with a rateable value. If it is advantageous to submit a rateable value, is there any guidelines (e.g. I just plug in a number or it has to have an official valuation, etc)?

Thanks in advance

[larac]

I know very little about this but found this link quite interesting, seems you need to be very carful about the wording

http://www.horwath.com.hk/-HW.asp?-n...lications2.asp

[PDLM]

This is the official IRD document on this, with examples:
http://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/pdf/pam44e.pdf
Note that it is not sufficient for your employer simply to label payments to you as "Housing allowance" - they must also "exercise control" (and have an audit trail) over the fact that that money really is spent on housing.

[Bullish]

Hello,

Could anyone please help me understand how does the rental reimbursement program works?

Say i have a base salary of HKD500k p/a and the max refundable amount is HKD150k. Does it mean my employer pays me HKD350k or HKD500k p/a with a reimbursement of HKD150k on my rental expense?

Many thanks,

Lee

[PDLM]

It depends on the agreement you have with your employer. All the scenarios are covered in the IRD document that I linked above.

a) You get paid HK$350K. Your employer rents an apartment in their name for your exclusive use for $150K.

b) You get paid HK$350K + HK$150K per month which is called "housing allowance".
i) If the compnay does not "exercise control" over how that money is spent then the $150K simply gets treated as normal salary
ii) If the do (which means that they hold a copy of your tenancy agreement and monthly rental receipts) then there is special treatment for the amount that you spend on your rent (and it also depends on the ratio of your housing allowance to your total salary).

See the link in my previous post for details.