To prepare for the mandatory e-filing for multinationals and, ultimately, all taxpayers in 2025 and 2030, respectively, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has implemented voluntary e-filing of Profits Tax returns from 1 April 2023. At the minimum, taxpayers have to file supplementary and certain forms electronically to the IRD starting this tax year.
We have been closely monitoring the development of IRD’s e-filing and continue to actively participate in various consultations and trial runs. We have also developed in-house tools to help our clients seamlessly migrate from paper-based filing to e-filing.
We are seeing clients taking action now to prepare for this fundamental change to the compliance process. Please refer to our latest flyer on the IRD’s changing requirements, key dates on e-Filing, and how we can support you and your organization(s).
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FAQ
Currently, taxpayers do not need to register for an account for e-Filing purposes.
They can submit their tax return using their Inland Revenue Department (IRD)’s File Number and Return Identification Number (RIN) printed on the PTR Form.
However, the IRD requires an online identification based on the eTAX account of the signing person using eTAX login credentials, personal digital certificate or iAM Smart login. The IRD also accepts a semi-electronic tax return, with the printed Simplified PTR Form to be signed using a wet signature.
In 2025, IRD will be releasing a new Business Tax Portal, we expect there might be changes and further developments to the submission process as a result.
On the IRD website, there is a list of validation error messages, which covers general validation errors related to the file.
However, there might be other messages if the iXBRL file has not been properly converted. Should that be the case you may need to reach out to your IT personnel to help you out.
The IRD expects that the Financial Statements and Profits Tax Computations are provided in an iXBRL format.
The S Forms and Other Forms are still required to be submitted in an XML file format.
The three (3) items from Financial Statements and 60 items from Tax Computation are listed as “Mandatory” as these are the items being checked when they are being uploaded to IRD’s platform.
However, the IRD requires taxpayers to tag specific sections in terms of the Financial Statement Taxonomy and all items in terms of Tax Computation Taxonomy if those sections exists in those supporting documents.
Currently the IRD requires submission of the supporting documents (Financial Statements and Tax Computation) and to furnish and submit tax returns on an individual entity basis.
The obligation to wet-sign your financial statements is not a tax requirement.
The tagged Financial Statements should be identical to the signed version and the IRD allows the tagged file not having the signature included. However, if the IRD requests for the final version, taxpayers are required to submit the final and signed version to the IRD office.
By appointing a Service Provider, although taxpayer still has the ultimate responsibility to the accuracy and liability related to the tax return, the Service Provider, such as KPMG, may provide end-to-end support from the drafting to submission of the tax return and relevant supporting documents.
In order to engage a Service Provider, the taxpayer needs to sign the IR1476 form.
Where there is no requirement to prepare financial statements under HKFRS, then a PDF of the signed financial statements may be submitted/uploaded in substitution of the tagged Financial Statements.
Currently IRD requires tagging of the Financial Statements which are prepared under HKFRS.
Taxpayers need to have adequate knowledge to both IRD’s taxonomy and the structure of their Financial Statements and Tax Computation.
The online validation will only check if the mandatory items are being included in those files, and if such items meet certain business logics.