Filing a Hong Kong Tax Return (BIR60): Deadlines, eTAX and What to Declare.

What the BIR60 is and who gets one

Filing a tax return in Hong Kong is a once-a-year job for most people. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) sends out the Tax Return - Individuals, form BIR60, and you have a fixed period to complete, sign and return it. Nothing is withheld from your pay along the way: Hong Kong does not practise "Pay As You Earn", so the IRD works out what you owe after you report your income, then sends the bill.

One form covers several kinds of income. The IRD issues the BIR60 for reporting salaries, rental income from solely owned property and profits from a sole proprietorship, and for electing personal assessment. If you receive one, you must complete and file it on time even if you have no income to report.

Each return covers one year of assessment, which runs from 1 April to 31 March. The 2025/26 return, for example, covers 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. Salaries tax is then charged at progressive rates from 2% to 17% on net chargeable income (income after deductions and allowances), or at the standard rate of 15% on net income (16% on the part above HK$5 million) if that produces less tax.

Hong Kong tax return deadlines for 2025/26 and 2026/27

Your deadline runs from the issue date printed on the return, so that date matters more than any general calendar. The IRD issues returns in bulk once a year: the 2024/25 returns went out on 2 May 2025, and about 2.77 million returns for 2025/26 went out on 4 May 2026, with these deadlines:

Source: Inland Revenue Department. Checked October 2026.

All of the 2025/26 dates have now passed. If your return is still outstanding, the section on late filing below sets out what follows. The 2026/27 return covers 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. If the pattern of recent years holds, it will arrive in early May 2027; either way, the deadline runs from the issue date printed on it.

Beyond the automatic eTAX month, two kinds of extension exist. If you have appointed a tax representative, the IRD's Block Extension Scheme gives a later date for the returns that representative lodges. Otherwise you can apply in writing for more time, giving the reason, but the IRD entertains individual applications only in exceptional circumstances.

Who must file, including people who never received a return

If the IRD sends you a BIR60, you file it, whatever your income. The IRD may issue one to someone with no current income, for example where you had income in the previous year and never told the IRD it had stopped, or where your spouse's return suggests you may have taxable income.

A missing return does not remove the duty to report. Under section 51(2) of the Inland Revenue Ordinance, a person chargeable to tax must tell the IRD in writing within four months after the end of the basis period. For salaries tax and property tax the basis period ends on 31 March, so the deadline is 31 July. Failing to notify can lead to prosecution or additional tax.

The common situations look like this:

• First job in Hong Kong. Write to the IRD for a return, giving your name, Hong Kong Identity Card number, postal address, daytime phone number, and your employer's full name and Business Registration number. Form IR6167 can be used for salaries tax.
• Previously assessed as not liable. The IRD may stop sending you a return every year. You still have to notify it when you become liable.
• New income after you received a return. Declare it in the matching part of that BIR60.
• Leaving Hong Kong. If you are chargeable to salaries tax and about to emigrate, study or work overseas, you must notify the IRD in writing at least one month before you leave.

Hong Kong taxes on a territorial basis. Employment income, rental income and business profits derived from Hong Kong can be taxable here whether or not you are a Hong Kong resident.

What to declare on the BIR60

The return is divided into parts, and you complete only the ones that apply to you.

Source: Inland Revenue Department. Checked October 2026.

Income or expenses in a foreign currency are reported in Hong Kong dollars. Bonuses, cash allowances and commission go into the total with your salary. If you draw a salary from your own sole proprietorship, that money is part of the business profit in Part 5 and is not reported again under salaries tax.

You do not attach receipts for deductions or allowances. The IRD asks you to keep them for at least six years after the end of the year of assessment, in case your return is selected for review. The exception is a claim that part or all of your salary is exempt, or a claim for relief under a double taxation arrangement: those supporting documents go in with the return.

The allowance and deduction amounts change most years. From 2026/27, for example, the basic allowance rises from HK$132,000 to HK$145,000 and the married person's allowance from HK$264,000 to HK$290,000.

Filing on eTAX: the Individual Tax Portal

Online filing runs through the IRD's Individual Tax Portal (ITP), a platform built from the former eTAX system and launched in July 2025, with an eTAX mobile app alongside it. There are three ways in:

• iAM Smart or a recognised digital certificate: log in directly, with no registration.
• An existing eTAX account: log in with your TIN (for eTAX login) and password as before. The TIN is printed on your tax return.
• A new user: request an Access Code using your TIN and your Hong Kong Identity Card number or tax file number.

The electronic return comes pre-filled with basic data such as your personal and employment particulars, and you stay responsible for checking and correcting it. You can save a partly completed return for four months, sign it with your ITP password, a digital certificate or iAM Smart+, and you get an on-screen acknowledgement once it is filed.

Three practical points:

• The extra month applies only to returns filed electronically.
• Since 4 May 2026, online filing also covers returns that claim exemption of salaries income or double taxation relief, and returns from sole proprietors with gross income above HK$2 million. Older guides still list these as paper-only cases.
• If a tax representative prepares your return, they complete it through the Tax Representative Portal. You then log in to your own ITP account to review and submit it before the deadline.

Paper filing is still available. The IRD accepts only the original return it issued, so photocopies, faxes and copies downloaded from the internet are refused. Returns go by post to GPO Box 132, Hong Kong, or in person to the Inland Revenue Centre in Kai Tak, and the IRD does not accept underpaid mail.

Joint assessment and personal assessment at a glance

Two elections on the BIR60 can lower a household's tax bill. A single person with salary income only needs neither.

Source: GovHK. Checked October 2026.

Joint assessment is chosen year by year. If your spouse has no salaries income at all, you claim the married person's allowance in Part 12.1 and joint assessment is not needed.

Personal assessment only helps if some of your income is chargeable to profits tax or property tax; with salary income alone, it changes nothing. It is also the only way to deduct mortgage interest on a property you let out. To elect, you must be 18 or over (or younger if both parents have died) and either ordinarily resident in Hong Kong or a temporary resident, meaning more than 180 days here in the year, or more than 300 days across two consecutive years. For 2025/26, the two-year limit runs to 31 March 2028.

Sole proprietors: business income on the same return

If you run a business you own 100%, its profits go in Part 5 of your BIR60. A business run as a partnership for any part of the year is reported on a Profits Tax Return (BIR52) instead.

Sole proprietors get three months to file, or four on eTAX. What goes in with the return depends on gross income, which counts every receipt of the business, including proceeds from selling equipment, and not only turnover.

Source: Inland Revenue Department. Checked October 2026.

A dormant business still needs Part 5: give the business name and registration number and enter zero in the figures. If Part 5 is left blank, the IRD may estimate your profits and issue an assessment.

Profits tax on its own gives a sole proprietor no personal allowances. Electing personal assessment brings them into the calculation, along with deductions such as home loan interest, which is why the election matters more for the self-employed than for employees. For the bookkeeping and the Part 5 computation, accounting firms in Hong Kong and profits tax services in Hong Kong handle this work for small businesses.

A limited company is a separate taxpayer with its own Profits Tax Return (BIR51), and the Companies Registry requires an audit of the financial statements of all companies except dormant ones, so a trading company needs its accounts audited every year. If you are weighing up incorporation, our guide to registering a company in Hong Kong sets out what changes.

After you file: assessment, provisional tax and payment

Most taxpayers receive their tax bills from the third quarter of the year onwards. If you turn out to owe nothing, you may receive no notice of assessment at all.

The bill usually comes in two instalments, because it carries provisional tax for the current year as well as final tax for the year you reported. Provisional tax is the IRD's estimate of the current year's tax, based on the previous year's income, and it is adjusted once the actual figures are known.

Source: Inland Revenue Department. Checked October 2026.

The notice of assessment sets out the exact amount and due date of each instalment.

If your net chargeable income for the current year is likely to fall below 90% of last year's, or you have become entitled to an allowance the notice did not include, you can apply to hold over provisional tax in writing on Form IR1121 or online through ITP. The deadline is 28 days before the payment due date or 14 days after the notice was issued, whichever is later. With most first instalments due in January 2027, the IRD points to November and December 2026 as the practical time to apply, since the year's income can be estimated by then.

The 2025/26 final tax also carries an automatic cut. Legislation passed in May 2026 reduces 2025/26 salaries tax, tax under personal assessment and profits tax by 100%, up to HK$3,000 per case, and a jointly assessed couple shares one cap. The IRD applies it in the final assessment with no application needed. It does not reduce provisional tax, so provisional tax still has to be paid on time.

If you disagree with an assessment, you must lodge a written objection within one month of the date the notice was issued, stating the grounds precisely, on Form IR831 or online through ITP. The tax still falls due on the dates in the notice unless the Commissioner agrees to hold it over pending the objection. A mistake you spot before the assessment arrives can be corrected through "Make a Request / Reply" in ITP, or in writing for a paper return.

If the first instalment is not paid on time, the second instalment becomes due immediately, a 5% surcharge is added to the whole outstanding balance, and the IRD can start recovery action, including notices to third parties and legal proceedings.

Late filing and incorrect returns

Missing the deadline has two separate consequences. The IRD can issue an estimated assessment, which may require you to pay more tax than you would otherwise owe, and it can take penalty action.

For salaries tax and property tax, the IRD's penalty policy says a late return or a failure to notify chargeability is normally compounded, meaning settled by a payment in place of prosecution. Repeated or serious cases can be prosecuted under section 80(2), where the maximum is a HK$10,000 fine plus a further fine of three times the tax undercharged.

Wrong figures are treated separately. For a simple omission or understatement, the policy refers to additional tax of 10% of the tax undercharged for a first offence, 20% for a second within five years, and 35% for a third or later one. Blatant cases, such as claiming an allowance for a parent who has died, currently attract 100%.

An estimated assessment does not replace the return: an objection to one has to include the completed return.

When a tax advisor helps

Many salaried people with one employer complete the BIR60 themselves, especially with the pre-filled online return. An advisor is most useful in narrower situations:

• You run a sole proprietorship and need the Part 5 computation, or the business's gross income is above HK$2 million.
• You let property and want to know whether personal assessment lowers the bill.
• You claim that part of your salary is exempt, or claim double taxation relief.
• You are leaving Hong Kong, changed jobs during the year, or acquired shares through an employer scheme.
• The IRD has sent an enquiry or an estimated assessment, or you want to object or hold over provisional tax.

A tax representative on record with the IRD also brings the Block Extension Scheme into play, which can give more time than the standard one month. Salaries tax services in Hong Kong cover individual returns, and tax advisors in Hong Kong handle wider questions such as offshore income and IRD disputes. If an accountant will prepare your return, our guide to choosing a certified public accountant in Hong Kong explains how to check credentials on the official register.

This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice. Tax rules, allowances and deadlines change each year; for a specific situation, speak with a qualified tax advisor or accountant.