Mr. Tam held a restaurant unit that was let on 1 September 2018 to Mr. Pang for a term of 2 years at a monthly rent of HK$18,000.  No premium was paid.  Mr. Tam paid the rates (HK$2,500 per quarter).  The rates were increased to HK$3,000 per quarter effective from 1 April 2019.  

Mr. Pang failed to pay any rents starting from 1 June 2019.  He moved out of the property on 31 July 2019 and emigrated to Canada thereafter.

During August 2019, the property was refurbished at a cost of HK$90,000.  On 1 September 2019, it was let to Mr. Chan for a term of 2 years at a monthly rent of HK$23,000.  Mr. Chan also paid an additional monthly charge of HK$2,500 to Mr. Tam for the use of furniture and electrical appliances.  Mr. Tam paid the rates.  

In January 2020, Mr. Pang returned to Hong Kong to seek employment.  Mr. Tam took legal actions against him, and successfully recovered HK$27,000 from him in March 2020. Legal costs of HK$17,000 were incurred. IRD accepted that the outstanding rent has become irrecoverable on 31 March 2020.  

Required:

Compute Mr. Tam's property tax liability for the year of assessment 2019/20, assuming that he does not elect for personal assessment for the year.  Ignore provisional property tax.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

To compute Mr Tams property tax liability for the year of assessment 201920 we need to consider the ... View the full answer