The Inland Revenue Department on Monday said tax revenue surged 22 percent for the year 2025/26 as it issued 2.77 million tax return forms, including 1.85 million paper forms and 920,000 e-returns.

Wang Fuk Court homeowners and residents will be waived from their final tax bill for the 2025/26 financial year, on top of a similar waiver announced in December that aims to ease their financial burden following the inferno.

Commissioner of Inland Revenue Benjamin Chan said they only have to fill in the return forms as usual.

“I think what they need to do is to complete the information about their income, as well as whether they need to claim any allowance or deductions in the tax returns,” he said.

All individuals must submit the form by June 4, while sole proprietors have until August 4 to do so.

There will be a one-month extension for those filing the form online.

On the city's tax revenue in the previous financial year, Chan said provisional figures showed that it jumped by 22 percent to HK$458.3 billion.

He said this was partly driven by a 61 percent growth in stamp duty revenue to HK$102.6 billion.

“Last year, the number of property transactions increased significantly, and also the price of property has remained stable, and that’s the reason why we had a very good increase in the stamp revenue arising from property transactions,” he said.

“As for the stock transactions, I think [it's] very obvious because you know that the trading volumes at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has increased significantly [by] more than 50 percent.”

Income from salaries tax and profits tax also rose, Chan said, as taxpayers earned more in the previous year, and more firms were liable to pay profits tax.

The department forecasts that total revenue for the current financial year will stand at HK$455.1 billion.



Edited by Tony Sabine