The employee starts working in Hong Kong and his/her employer’s tax liability

If an employee is hired for the first time has an annual income exceeding the basic allowance or is a married person or is part-time, the employer must fill in an IR56E to the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department within three months after the employee is hired. Upon receipt, the Inland Revenue Department will consider whether to issue a tax return to the employee to request him to fill and submit it and then issue a notice for payment of deferred withholding tax or salaries tax assessment to him. Since the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department has already sent the tax return to the employee to fill in, he does not need to notify the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department that he has started working to collect wages.

If the employee is required to pay salaries tax and has not received the individual tax return from the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department for a long time, he must notify the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department within 4 months after the end of the tax year of the start of work. He needs to provide personal information, employer name, source of income, etc. so that the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department can open a personal file for him and issue a tax return to him. However, even if the employee thinks that he does not need to pay salaries tax, but receives an individual tax return, he must also fill in the tax return so that the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department can determine whether he does not need to pay tax, otherwise, the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department will issue to him Estimated tax assessment notice and penalty notice for non-payment of the tax return.

The above information is for reference only. If in doubt, we welcome your tax inquiries.