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SCMP Reporter

IF YOU think you've got problems with your tax bill, think again.

  Whatever you have to hand over to the taxman each year, nothing compares with the person who boosted the Government's coffers by an amazing $10.3 million for the current financial year.

  That person, male or female, is secreted in the Inland Revenue's computer system as the single biggest taxpayer.

  Assuming the mystery tycoon was rich enough to afford a good accountant, that translates at the least into a salary of some $68.7 million a year, or $264,102 per working day.

  That may seem a lot of money for an individual to fork out, but it was nothing compared with the previous year (1991-92) when someone paid $18.6 million in salary tax.

  According to Inland Revenue Commissioner Mr Anthony Au Yeung, both payments came from the commercial sector.

   And Mr Au Yeung warned the public the taxman would cometh in greater numbers this year. An extra 18 staff are to be redeployed to the Inland Revenue investigation and field audit teams to crack down on evaders.

  The Government will recover $700 million this financial year in lost revenue from tax avoidance cases - 10 per cent more than expected.

    Mr Au Yeung said one thing was clear when looking at high-income earners over the past two years - their contributions were not keeping pace with inflation.

  He said the top five salary taxpayers for the 1992-93 financial year paid $10.3 million, $7.3 million, $5.9 million, $5.2 million and $5 million, lower than the previous year when the top five paid $18.6 million, $8.6 million, $8.1 million, $6.8 million and $6.7 million.

  Either the top earners are earning less, or their accountants are doing a better job.

   From April 1994 the Inland Revenue proposes to simplify tax reporting by allowing individuals with multiple sources of income to return all their income in one return.

  ''This will both help the Government administratively and save taxpayers' time, freeing more than 200 posts at various ranks. I hope the staff would be redeployed to useful areas,'' Mr Au Yeung said.

  The abolition of cosmetics tax and entertainment tax, and the introduction of personnel tax concessions will not restrict the tax net and narrow taxpayer bands.

  ''The entertainment tax accounts for a very small amount of the total revenue, about $10 million. It's not significant. The increase in earnings and salary tax side would more or less make up the loss,'' he said. Total revenue from stamp duty is expectedto be $13.3 billion for 1992-93, sharply up from the $9.5 billion in 1991-92.

  In general, property transactions account for 70 per cent of such revenue, 25 per cent in stock transactions and five per cent for lease rate duty.



Taxing times as tycoon coughs up $10.3m