Ex-official among 33,019 who failed to complete eTAX filings amid unclear wording
More than 33,000 people failed to submit completed tax returns because of unclear wording in Hong Kong’s eTAX system, the ombudsman has found, with nearly 5,200 receiving penalty notices and two prosecuted. Dr Luk Che-chung, a former chief executive of the Hospital Authority’s Hong Kong East area, was among the affected taxpayers and urged the government on Tuesday to learn from the incident. In…
A recent investigation by Hong Kong's Office of the Ombudsman has revealed that over 33,000 taxpayers failed to complete their electronic tax filings due to unclear instructions in the eTAX system. Among those affected was Dr Luk Che-chung, a former chief executive of the Hospital Authority’s Hong Kong East area. The ambiguous wording on the eTAX submission and signature interface led many users to believe signing via the "iAM Smart" platform completed their filing, when in fact they had to return to eTAX until a confirmation page appeared.
Nearly 5,200 taxpayers received penalty notices, with two prosecuted. The Office of the Ombudsman noted that the incident caused significant inconvenience and additional workload for the Inland Revenue Department (IRD). The IRD has since implemented measures to prevent similar issues, including pop-up reminders, confirmation messages, enhanced prompts, and auto-saving of entered information.
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