As more and more Hong Kong people have to work in mainland China nowadays, HR professionals have to be familiarized with the tax regulations in China so that they can make sure that employees in their corporations know their tax obligations.

To help HR professionals update their knowledge on China tax arrangement, JobsDB and ACCA have co-organized a seminar titled "An Overview of Salaries Tax of Hong Kong and Individual Income Tax of PRC" on 29 November 2006. Three speakers from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu's International Assignment Services shared their expert knowledge with more than 120 HR and accounting professionals attending this seminar.

Mona Mak, Tax Partner, Louis Lam, Senior Manager, and Isabel Liu, Tax Manager, talked about PRC IIT rules, recent enforcement on IIT administration, IIT planning opportunities, tax filing obligations and exemption for cross-border employees, tax equalization / protection, and double tax arrangement (DTA) between mainland China and Hong Kong.

The speakers reminded the attendees that the tax regulations in Hong Kong and mainland China are different and they have to be careful in handling tax issues for employees who have to work in mainland China. For example, about the hot topic of 183-day exemption, in the old DTA, the 183 days were counted on a calendar year basis whereas in the new DTA, these days are counted during any 12-month period. Mona Mak advised HR professionals to determine if the number of days employees to be spent on mainland China can be limited.

In addition, in the new DTA, a new classification of income groups is introduced. Independent personal services covered in the old DTA are not specifically mentioned in the new arrangement.

In the last Q&A section, quite a number of attendees asked questions related to cases in their own companies, showing that tax issues concerning mainland China are important items on the HR agenda.