傷殘受養人免稅額︰31A.DOC

Case No. D10/11 Salaries tax – allowance – dependent sister allowance – whether appellant maintained spouse’s handicapped sister – whether appellant predominantly cared for spouse’s handicapped sister – Inland Revenue Ordinance section 30B. [Decision in Chinese] Panel: Cissy K S Lam (chairman), Vincent P C Kwan and Elaine Liu Yuk Ling. Date of hearing: 12 May 2011. Date of decision: 15 July 2011. The appellant objected to the Deputy Commissioner’s determination to reject his claim for dependent sister allowance. The sister (‘Ms A’) of the appellant’s spouse was 37 at the time of the assessment. She suffered from polio shortly after birth, which caused deformity in her lower limbs. She was wheelchair bound. She lived with her parents in Mainland China, living on the pension of her mother. The appellant and his spouse lived in Hong Kong. The appellant’s spouse visited Ms A and her parents several times a year, bringing them daily appliances they needed. The appellant’s spouse talked to Ms A on phone weekly. The appellant and his spouse also financially supported the daily and medical expenses of Ms A and the spouse’s parents. Held: 1. Section 30B of the Ordinance imposes two separate requirements before a taxpayer can claim dependent brother/sister allowance for the sibling of his spouse: ‘maintenance’ and ‘care’. Maintenance denotes the supply of material needs and money. Care includes needs other than financial ones. 2. Also, for a taxpayer to prove ‘predominant care’ required under section 30B(3)(a), the amount of care provided by the taxpayer towards the dependent sibling must have supremacy or ascendancy over others; it must be the strongest prevailing one amongst others (Sit Kwong Keung v CIR [2001] 5 HKTC 647 applied; D35/00, IRBRD, vol 15, 352 considered). 3. The appellant failed to show that he and his spouse had predominantly cared for Ms A. There was no evidence to suggest that Ms A could not have taken care of herself despite her handicap. D