Hong Kong's top earner in 2003-04 paid $22 million in salaries tax, much lower than the $56 million paid by the top earner in 2002-03, the Inland Revenue Department says.

The top earner for profits tax has paid $1.5 billion, a surge of $140 million on 2002-03.

The department said the amounts of tax paid by some are particularly high, probably because they are in receipt of incomes other than salaries. Apart from salary, bonus, commission, allowance and share option gains also form part of the assessable income of a taxpayer.

The level of profits tax paid, however, depends much on the business performance of individual companies.

Profits tax up 25%

Up to February 29, the total salaries tax assessed amounted to $29.1 billion, representing a drop of almost 6% over the total of $30.8 billion for the corresponding period in the year 2002-03.

The total profits tax assessed for the same 11-month period amounted to $48.3 billion, an increase of 25% over the total of $38.5 billion in the previous year.

The difference is largely attributable to the salaries tax rebate exercise in July last year, and the adjustments in the 2003-04 Budget.

Excluding the impact of these measures on revenue collection, the assessable income of the salaries taxpayers remained much the same as in the previous year though a marked increase in company assessable profits was recorded.

The actual salaries tax and profits tax collections for 2003-04 will be announced when the year-end accounts are finalised by late April.