Rent, self-education and dependent parents

The salaries tax briefing in the first batch explains how the tax is worked out, and what each ceiling is. These notes cover the four claims that are easiest to get wrong: the domestic rent deduction, self-education expenses, the dependent parent allowance, and the deduction for premiums under the Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme (VHIS). The focus is the conditions for qualifying, and the situations in which the claim does not apply. They follow the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) page and frequently asked questions on the tax deduction for domestic rent, the IRD page on raising the ceiling of the concessionary deductions allowed for home loan interest and for domestic rent, IRD PAM 61(e), the table of allowances, deductions and tax rates (2026/27 and subsequent years), and the GovHK pages on the deduction for self-education expenses (revised May 2026), on allowances, and on the tax deduction for VHIS premiums. All were checked on 19 October 2026.

Figures for the 2026/27 year of assessment (PAM 61(e))

1. Basic allowance: HK$145,000. Married person's allowance: HK$290,000. Child allowance: HK$140,000 for each child.
2. Dependent parent or dependent grandparent allowance, for each such person. Aged 60 or above, or eligible to claim Disability Allowance: HK$55,000, and an additional allowance of HK$55,000. Aged 55 to 59: HK$27,500, and an additional allowance of HK$27,500.
3. Dependent brother or dependent sister allowance: HK$37,500.
4. Self-education expenses: a ceiling of HK$100,000. Domestic rent: a basic deduction of HK$100,000, and an additional deduction of HK$20,000. VHIS: HK$8,000 for each insured person. Tax-deductible voluntary contributions and qualifying annuity premiums: HK$60,000 in total. Mandatory contributions: HK$18,000.

The domestic rent deduction

1. Who may claim. A taxpayer chargeable to salaries tax, or to tax under personal assessment, who pays rent as the tenant. You may also claim rent paid, as tenant, by a spouse who lives with you.
2. The premises. A residential premises in Hong Kong, used as a place to live, and not barred from residential use by the law or by a Government lease or a similar instrument. If you have more than one place of residence, you may claim only for the place where you mainly live.
3. The tenancy. This is the core condition.
   1. It must be a written lease, or a written sub-lease, that gives exclusive possession.
   2. It must be stamped under the Stamp Duty Ordinance.

A lease that has not been stamped does not qualify, so the stamp duty on the lease has to be dealt with. How that is done is set out in the checklist before you start work, in the first batch.

1. A serviced apartment. If you occupy it under a licence, the licence does not give exclusive possession, it is not an instrument on which stamp duty is charged, and it does not qualify. If the serviced apartment is taken on a qualifying lease, the deduction can be claimed.
2. The amount of the deduction. It is the lower of the rent actually paid and the deduction ceiling. The ceiling is reduced in these cases.
   1. Where the tenancy is shared, apportion by the number of tenants. The rent is treated as paid by the tenants in equal shares.
   2. Where the term covers only part of the year of assessment, apportion by the period that overlaps.
3. Situations in which you cannot deduct.
   1. The employer, or an associated corporation of the employer, provides the place to live, or pays or refunds the rent in part or in full. A rent allowance, or company quarters, usually means you do not qualify.
   2. The landlord is an associate of you or of your spouse, for example a spouse, a parent, a child, a brother or sister, a partner, or a controlled corporation.
   3. During that period, you, or a spouse who lives with you, are the legal and beneficial owner of residential property in Hong Kong.
   4. You, or a spouse who lives with you, are a public rental housing tenant, or an authorised occupant.
   5. The lease gives an option to purchase, or a right of first refusal.
4. Proof. You must keep evidence that the premises are your main home, such as water bills, electricity bills, gas bills, and a resident card. You do not submit them with the tax return. Keep them, in case they are checked.
5. The additional deduction of HK$20,000. You must meet all of the following.
   1. You live in Hong Kong with a child for at least 6 consecutive months, or for a shorter period that the Commissioner considers reasonable.
   2. The child was born on or after 25 October 2023, and is under 18 at any time in that year.
   3. The rent paid is above the basic deduction ceiling.
   4. You elect in writing to use both the basic deduction ceiling and the additional deduction ceiling.

The additional deduction ceiling for a married couple together is HK$20,000. Each taxpayer may use the additional deduction in 19 years of assessment in total. The years do not have to run one after another. The basic deduction has no limit on the number of years.

An example, with assumed figures. You are single, and you share with one roommate. The monthly rent is HK$20,000. The two of you each pay half, and the lease runs for the whole year. The deduction ceiling is 100,000 ÷ 2 = HK$50,000. You pay HK$120,000, so the amount you may deduct is HK$50,000.

Self-education expenses

1. What you may deduct. Course fees for a prescribed course of education, and the related examination fees, where the purpose is to gain or to maintain a qualification needed for employment you have now, or for employment you take up later.
2. A prescribed course of education includes these.
   1. A course offered by an education provider, such as a university, a post-secondary institution, a registered school, or an exempted school, including a regulated non-local course.
   2. A training or development course offered by a trade association, a professional association, or a business association.
   3. A course accredited or recognised by an institution specified in Schedule 13 to the Inland Revenue Ordinance.
3. The ceiling. HK$100,000 a year.
4. Which year you claim in. Claim in the year of assessment in which you pay, which is not necessarily the year in which the classes are held. If you pay in February 2025 and the course starts in September, the claim belongs in 2024/25.
5. Money the employer pays back. You may claim only the balance that was not paid back, or you may treat the part that was paid back as income and claim the whole of the fees. If the repayment reaches you only in the following year, you may claim the whole amount in the year you paid, and in the following year you must report the sum paid back as income.
6. Proof. Keep the receipts and the records for 6 years, counted from the end of the year of assessment in question.

A point on practice. For the enrolment fee, the examination fee, and the related course fees for a professional qualification, in a field such as accountancy, finance, or actuarial work, first check whether the body that runs it is a prescribed education provider, or a recognised professional body.

The dependent parent allowance

1. In that year, a parent, or a grandparent, including a maternal grandparent, must meet all of the following.
   1. The parent ordinarily resides in Hong Kong.
   2. The parent has reached the age of 55, or is eligible to claim the Government's Disability Allowance.
   3. The parent has lived with you for at least 6 consecutive months without paying the full cost, or you, or your spouse, pay not less than HK$12,000 in the year towards the parent's maintenance.
2. The additional allowance. If, throughout that year, the parent lives with you and does not pay the full cost, you may claim a further allowance.
3. Ordinarily residing in Hong Kong means habitually living in Hong Kong. Factors the IRD will look at include these.
   1. The number of days spent in Hong Kong, how often the person visits, and how long each stay lasts.
   2. Whether the person has a fixed place of residence in Hong Kong.
   3. Whether the person has a property outside Hong Kong for that person's own occupation.
   4. Whether the person works, or carries on a business, in Hong Kong.
   5. Whether relatives and friends live mainly in Hong Kong.

A parent who lives long-term on the Mainland, or in some other place, and only comes to Hong Kong now and then to visit, usually does not meet "ordinarily residing in Hong Kong", and the allowance cannot be claimed. That remains so even if you remit money every month for the parent's maintenance.

1. It cannot be claimed together with elderly residential care expenses. In the same year, and for the same parent, you cannot have both the dependent parent allowance and the deduction for elderly residential care expenses.
2. Between brothers and sisters. The allowance for any one dependant may be claimed by one person only. If more than one person qualifies, they must agree who makes the claim.

A deduction for Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme premiums

1. A certified product. It must be a VHIS product certified by the Health Bureau. Premiums for medical insurance that is not VHIS cannot be deducted.
2. Who may claim. You, or a spouse who lives with you, pay qualifying premiums as the policy holder, for an insured person.
3. The insured person. Yourself, or a specified relative, and that person holds a Hong Kong identity card at any time in the year. A person under 11 is subject to separate rules. A specified relative includes these.
   1. Your spouse.
   2. A parent or a grandparent of you or of your spouse, including a maternal grandparent, who has reached 55 or is eligible to claim Disability Allowance.
   3. An unmarried child, or a brother or sister, of you or of your spouse, who is under 18, or is aged 18 to 25 and in full-time education, or is unable to work because of a disability.
4. The ceiling. HK$8,000 a year for each insured person. There is no ceiling on the number of specified relatives. More than one taxpayer may claim in respect of the same insured person.
5. How this differs from the dependent parent allowance. VHIS has no requirement that the person ordinarily resides in Hong Kong. The insured person must hold a Hong Kong identity card.
6. A premium that is paid back. If a premium is refunded after the deduction has been allowed, you must notify the IRD in writing within 3 months after the refund.
7. Proof. Keep the premium receipts, or the annual premium statement, for 6 years.

How to claim, and how to put an omission right

1. Enter the claim in the relevant part of the individual tax return, BIR60.
2. If you notice an omission only after you have filed, you may put in a supplementary claim in writing, in the way the IRD requires. A supplementary claim for VHIS uses Form IR831, and it must be made within 6 years after the end of the year of assessment.
3. If the IRD asks, produce the lease, the receipts, proof of address, and the other documents it requires.

A check of your own

1. Has the lease been stamped? Is it a lease that gives exclusive possession, rather than a licence? Does the employer pay a rent allowance?
2. Is the body that runs the course of study on the recognised list? In which year was the fee paid?
3. Does the parent ordinarily reside in Hong Kong? Have you lived together for 6 months, or has the maintenance for the year reached HK$12,000?
4. Is the medical policy a VHIS certified product? Does the insured person hold a Hong Kong identity card?

Sources

• IRD, Tax deduction for domestic rent, page and frequently asked questions (checked 19 October 2026)
• IRD, Raising the ceiling of the concessionary deductions allowed for home loan interest and for domestic rent, page (checked 19 October 2026)
• IRD, PAM 61(e), Allowances, deductions and tax rate table (checked 19 October 2026)
• GovHK, Deduction for self-education expenses (revised May 2026, checked 19 October 2026)
• GovHK, Allowances, page (checked 19 October 2026)
• GovHK, Tax deduction arrangements for qualifying premiums paid under a Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme policy (checked 19 October 2026)
• Health Bureau, Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme website, Tax deduction, and Identifying certified products (checked 19 October 2026)