Michael Littlewood
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622090996
- eISBN:
- 9789882207455
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622090996.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter discusses post-war developments in Hong Kong's system of income taxation as shaped by Sir Mark Young and Sir Alexander Grantham. Young's term in office was marked by his attempt to ...
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This chapter discusses post-war developments in Hong Kong's system of income taxation as shaped by Sir Mark Young and Sir Alexander Grantham. Young's term in office was marked by his attempt to introduce a normal income tax, resulting in the Inland Revenue Ordinance 1947, which resurrected, in a modified form, the “partial income tax” provided for by the War Revenue Ordinance 1941. Shortly after the Ordinance became law in May 1947, however, he retired and so it fell to Grantham to pursue the goal of a normal income tax. However, the public record suggests that Grantham was reluctant to do anything which would antagonise Hong Kong's business community and that his prevarications effectively transformed the supposedly temporary Ordinance into a permanent feature of Hong Kong's tax system.Less
This chapter discusses post-war developments in Hong Kong's system of income taxation as shaped by Sir Mark Young and Sir Alexander Grantham. Young's term in office was marked by his attempt to introduce a normal income tax, resulting in the Inland Revenue Ordinance 1947, which resurrected, in a modified form, the “partial income tax” provided for by the War Revenue Ordinance 1941. Shortly after the Ordinance became law in May 1947, however, he retired and so it fell to Grantham to pursue the goal of a normal income tax. However, the public record suggests that Grantham was reluctant to do anything which would antagonise Hong Kong's business community and that his prevarications effectively transformed the supposedly temporary Ordinance into a permanent feature of Hong Kong's tax system.
