Skip to main content

A. Married person's allowance

Regardless of whether the spouse is a Hong Kong resident, a married taxpayer in Hong Kong can claim the married person's allowance in any year of assessment if the taxpayer is married at any time during that year, and;

  • he/she is not living apart from his/her spouse; or
  • he/she is living apart from his/her spouse but is maintaining or supporting the spouse; AND the spouse does not have any income chargeable to salaries tax;

in which case it does not matter whether the taxpayer and his/her spouse have elected the joint tax assessment or the personal tax assessment.

 

“Marriage”, in the context of the Inland Revenue Ordinance (IRO), refers to a heterosexual marriage between a man and a woman. “Spouse” is defined in section 2 of the IRO as a husband or a wife. A “husband” is a married man and a “wife” is a married woman.