Inland Revenue Department’s response to the FCC enquiry on tax audits of Hong Kong independent media

Following the FCC’s May 23 statement on multiple tax audits of independent media organisations, the club made enquiries to Hong Kong’s Inland Revenue Department (IRD). Below is IRD’s reply in full.

To protect tax revenue, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has established procedures to review the information provided by taxpayers and to verify the amount of tax payable. If there is any information showing that any person may have breached the provisions of the Inland Revenue Ordinance (IRO), the IRD will follow up the case in accordance with the IRO. The industry or background of a taxpayer has no bearing on such reviews.

Owing to the secrecy provision of Section 4 of the IRO, the IRD is precluded from disclosing information of individual cases to unauthorised persons and will not comment on any case.