稅收與公共財政：由差餉到印花稅

1. 1845: rates paid for the police

On 7 June 1845 the Government legislated to meet the daily expenses of the police, providing for rates collected quarterly at a fixed proportion of the annual assessed value of land and property. Early public finance in Hong Kong began with property, not with income.

On 14 June 1856 a lighting ordinance required street lamps and charged a lamp rate at 1.5 per cent of the assessed rateable value. One tax base paid for both the police and the lamps; assessed on value and adjustable every year, the structure has lasted.

Stability came at a price: when valuations lagged behind market rents, revenue fell short; when they caught up, owners felt the burden jump. Rating disputes through the twentieth century circled this line.

2. 1858 to 1917: budgets, stamp duty and a war rate

From 8 December 1858 the Legislative Council voted on the Government’s budget for the first time, and the practice became a convention: control of public expenditure began to pass to the legislature. On 8 September 1866 the Stamp Ordinance of 1866 was promulgated and stamp duty was levied from then on.

On 7 June 1917 the Legislative Council resolved to levy a special war rate of seven per cent to fund British operations in Europe. The levy shows that pre-war Hong Kong finances could still be made to serve a war fought in London’s interest.

3. 1947: an Inland Revenue Department and an ordinance

On 1 April 1947 the Inland Revenue Department was established and began collecting property tax, profits tax and income tax. On 3 May 1947 the Inland Revenue Ordinance of 1947 came into force, and Hong Kong has levied salaries tax and profits tax since then.

On 4 March 1953 the Government announced a fiscal reserve fund, setting aside 10 million dollars from the budget for future deficits. The post-war fiscal framework rested on three tools: direct taxation, reserves and the annual budget.

Direct taxation changed the relationship between government and public: taxpayers now had reason to ask how the budget was spent. After 1958 the question became concrete, because Hong Kong could decide how much to spend.

4. New Territories rates: a tax that met a land system

On 13 August 1954 the Government amended the law on New Territories rates so that, from 1 April 1955, property there would be rated on the same basis as in the urban areas. On 6 September 1954 more than 600 delegates from across the New Territories met in the Heung Yee Kuk assembly to oppose rating.

On 10 May 1956 the Heung Yee Kuk filed an objection and the Government replied that the rate in the bill would not be adjusted, but that rates on New Territories land would be suspended. Taxation is not only arithmetic: applying one rate to a different land system turns it into politics.

The New Territories dispute shows something else: the Heung Yee Kuk could trade organised mobilisation for concessions, and the concession took the form of a suspension rather than a lower rate.

5. 1958: fiscal autonomy and the years of surpluses

On 6 March 1958 Governor Black announced in the Legislative Council that from the next financial year Hong Kong could decide its own budget, issue bonds and borrow without British approval. Fiscal autonomy matters more than any single tax, because it fixes the scale of spending for decades.

The budget of 26 February 1969 forecast a surplus of 64 million dollars, the first post-war budget in surplus. On 21 November 1975 the basis for property tax moved from rateable value to net assessable value, and the budget of 2 March 1977 stated that reserves should rise in step with the growth of annual expenditure.

6. 1987 to 1997: double taxation, surpluses and the handover

On 25 February 1987 the Government published the 1987/88 budget, setting out how double taxation would be computed for people working both locally and overseas. On 4 March 1992 the last British Financial Secretary presented his first budget, forecasting a surplus of 4.7 billion dollars for 1992/93.

On 6 March 1996 the Financial Secretary delivered his first budget, the last colonial budget that Hong Kong could decide entirely on its own. On 15 July 1997 lessees under newly granted land leases were required to pay an annual rent equal to 3 per cent of the assessed rateable value.

A budget in the transition years faced London, Beijing and Hong Kong at once, and experts of the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group met on how it should be prepared: a financial document had become part of the handover.

7. After 1998: stamp duty as a housing tool

On 18 February 1998 the Financial Secretary delivered the first budget of the new SAR under the theme of relieving hardship while strengthening the economy. On 10 March 2006 the Government published an ordinance exempting offshore funds from profits tax to draw new money to be managed in Hong Kong.

On 20 November 2010 a special stamp duty took effect to curb speculation. On 23 February 2013 the Government raised stamp duty on properties at or below 2 million dollars to 1.5 per cent, and from 5 November 2016 the ad valorem stamp duty on residential property was set at a flat 15 per cent, with an exemption for Hong Kong permanent residents who had never bought a home.

The role of stamp duty changed with it: from a charge on documents to a lever that can move demand at short notice. One tax shifted its aim from revenue to behaviour.