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SCMP Reporter

Godwin Hung Fan-kwong had been watching the news all week, hoping for signs that the financial secretary would offer a treat of tax concessions for middle-class families like his.

The gift  arrived yesterday when he learned that the concessions Mr Tang announced would save his family HK$40,000.

'I was  really happy and immediately called my wife to tell her about  the reductions,' the 48-year-old logistics executive said after he checked the announcement on the government website. 'Yesterday I guessed that it would help me save several thousands of dollars and I was planning to use the money for a trip to Europe but I didn't expect HK$40,000,' he said.

Now he plans to save the money and invest it in the stock market.

Mr Hung, the father of two daughters - Jacqueline, 13, and Trista, 10 - said that he and his wife together earned over HK$1 million a year.

Without  changes to the tax rates, he and his wife would have had to pay HK$78,603 in tax. Now they will pay  HK$64,718. After deducting his tax rebate of HK$15,000, his wife's HK$7,423 rebate and the HK$4,000 rates waiver, the family's net payment is HK$38,295 - a saving of more than HK$40,000.

The measures that helped his savings included a HK$10,000  rise in the child allowance and the widening of marginal tax bands.

While he praised the concessions for  relieving pressure on the middle class, Mr Hung said that the budget lacked long-term measures to help develop the economy and create future opportunities.

'Unlike 20 years ago, when people could climb  the ladder, now society is going down. Middle-class income has been on a decline,' he said.

Mr Hung said that he was too old to benefit from the birth-boosting measure, which offers an additional one-off child allowance of HK$50,000 for each new child.

But he said that this allowance could make many friends - who decided not to have children because of financial and social pressure - change their minds.



A HK$40,000 gift for a middle-class family