Salaries
Tax - Husband and wife
For
taxation, a husband and his wife are a couple of a “marriage”.
According
to section 2 of IRO, "marriage" means (a) any marriage recognized by the law
of Hong Kong; or (b) any marriage, whether or not so recognized, entered
into outside Hong Kong according to the law of the place where it was
entered into and between persons having the capacity to do so, but shall
not, in the case of a marriage which is both potentially and actually
polygamous, include marriage between a man and any wife other than the
principal wife, and "married" shall be construed accordingly. Furthermore,
a wife is defined as a married woman of a marriage within the meaning of the
IRO.
In short,
the marriage must be a lawful marriage between a man and a
woman. A marriage of the same sex
（同性戀婚姻）is
not acceptable for tax purpose.
As far as
taxation is concerned, husband and wife are treated as separate individuals.
Each party is required to complete his / her tax return, to notify the IRD
of his / her chargeability to tax and to pay his / her own tax.
Under
salaries tax, if the total net income of one spouse are less than his / her
total allowances, there will be unused personal allowances under his / her
own assessment. In that case, the couple can elect for joint assessment to
have their incomes and personal allowances combined in one single assessment
so as to reduce their overall tax liabilities.
Press here for the amount of allowances.
Should the
election not reduce the their total tax, the IRD will inform the taxpayers
so and the election will not be effected.
The
election must be signed by both spouses in a tax return or in a form
specified by Board of Inland Revenue. The time limit for the election adopts
the time limit of the relevant tax return or within one month after a
relevant salaries tax assessment becoming final and conclusive.
The joint
election can be withdrawn within one month of the issue of the joint
assessment. But once withdrawn, no re-election will be accepted. However, if
there are adjustments to either spouse's original assessments rendering the
tax reduction of joint assessment no longer applicable, the election will be
deemed invalid and revised assessments will be issued under separation
taxation basis.
Normally,
only one joint-assessment will be issued to the spouse liable to tax. This
is unlike Personal Assessment where the total tax will be apportioned
between the spouses so that each spouse will get an assessment. If both
spouses are required to pay tax before the joint assessment, they will have
to nominate one to get the joint-assessment.
For joint
assessment in case of a newly-wed couple, the marriage will be deemed to
start from the beginning of the year of assessment, that is 1 April. In
other words, there will be no apportionment of a spouse's income between
before and after the marriage.
If a
taxpayer's spouse does not have any taxable income, the taxpayer should
claim Married Personal Allowances in his own tax return. In other words,
election for joint assessment is not necessary.
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