Inland Revenue Service

Alas, I had to take on the challenge of dealing with two years of income taxes in Hong Kong. Their tax year ends March 31, so my time here is split over two tax years. In addition, I can't leave Hong Kong unless I have a release saying that my taxes have been paid.

I had just files my US taxes--I can't tell you how many pages made up my federal, state, and local returns--it was too many to count at any rate.

So here is what I did in Hong Kong: two single page forms were send by my employer to the Inland Revenue Office of Hong Kong. One was for last tax year, and one was related to stating that my employment was ending in Hong Kong on June 8. I also was given copies of the form.

I went to the Revenue office on Hong Kong Island. I arrived at the building at 8:45 a.m., took a number, and was soon called and sent up to the 25th floor. Someone there looked at my copy of the form, had me show them verification that I had a daughter, took it all to a case manager, came back and had me fill out a simple form by hand with my present and future address. I will be sent a release letter within a week. I left with the name and telephone number of the case manager. Total tax liability? $0. Total time spend? 35 minutes.

Afterwards I had a capaccino at Starbucks across the street and read a newspaper. Total time spend? 40 minutes. Cost? $31 HK