The Financial Secretary has announced the 2024-25 Budget. Highlights as below:

On Property Market:

• Special Stamp Duty, Buyers’ Stamp Duty and New Residential Stamp Duty for residential properties with immediate effect

On Stock Market:

• Introduce treasury share buy-back regime and maintain trading operations under severe weather: targeting to implement in mid 2024
• Explore measures to enhance listing regime, improve transaction mechanism, boost investor services, step up market promotion, etc.

On Assisting Small and Medium Enterprises

• SME Financing Guarantee Scheme: extend application period for 80% and 90% Guarantee Products till end March 2026
• BUD Fund: inject $500 million with launch of “E-commerce Easy". Provide up to $1 million per enterprise for implementing e-commerce projects in the Mainland

On Supporting People and Enterprises

• Rates concession for domestic properties for the first quarter of 2024/25, subject to a $1,000 ceiling
• Rates concession for non-domestic properties for the first quarter of 2024/25, subject to a $1,000 ceiling
• Reduce salaries tax and tax under personal assessment for the assessment year 2023/24 by 100%, subject to a $3,000 ceiling
• Reduce profits tax for the assessment year 2023/24 by 100%, subject to a $3,000 ceiling

On Finance

• issue $70 billion worth of retail bonds:
  Silver bonds: $50 billion
  Green bonds and Infrastructure bonds: $20 billion

On Trade

• Multinational supply chain management centre:
  Provide consulting services, trade financing and corporate training
  Study the establishment of trade single window to provide one-stop services for enterprises
  Attract Mainland manufacturing enterprises to set up offshore trading management headquarters in Hong Kong
• Explore new markets:
  consider establishing Economic and Trade Offices in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

On Intellectual Property Trading

Introduce legislative proposal to implement "patent box" tax incentive. Profit tax rate to be reduced to 5%

On Increasing Revenue

• Business registration fee to be increased by $200 to $2,200 per annum from 1 April 2024. Businsss registration levy of $150 will be waived for 2 years
• Proposed two-tier standard rates regime for salaries tax and tax under personal assessment: affecting only taxpayers with over $5 million net income and whose tax payable is calculated at standard rate. Taxpayers on progressive rates will not be affected.
  Proposed tax rates for net income above $5 million:
  First $5 million: 15%, Protion exceeding $5 million: 16%

Date: 2024.02.28