Hong Kong's top earner made $25 million a month and paid $41 million in salaries tax for the past financial year - more than the combined tax paid by the next top three earners, according to figures released yesterday.
The top earner made about $300 million in cash bonuses and share options in 2000-01, based on the tax he paid, an expert estimated. This works out to about $833,000 a day.
The Inland Revenue Department refused to identify the top wage-earner. Marshall Byres, principal tax consultant at Ernst & Young, said he or she would be a director of a company who exercised a huge share option.
The pay dwarfed the salaries of the next three biggest earners, who each took between $78 million and $80 million, each paying $12 million tax.
The top 10 earners for 2000-01 paid a combined $142 million, about 51 per cent up on the previous year's $94 million but lower than the $153 million the top 10 taxpayers paid in 1998-99.
The top 10 corporate taxpayers added $7.44 billion to the Government's coffers, the No 1 corporation paying $1.48 billion. This compared with $7.4 billion paid by the top 10 corporate taxpayers in the previous year and $5.92 billion in 1998-99.
