The 2025/26 dates
| Situation | Date |
|---|---|
| Returns issued | 4 May 2026 |
| Sole proprietor filing on paper | Within 3 months, on or before 4 August 2026 |
| Sole proprietor filing through eTAX | 4 September 2026 |
| Sole proprietor with a tax representative | 5 October 2026 under the block extension |
| Taxpayer with no sole proprietorship | Within 1 month, by 4 June 2026 |
Part 5, box by box
- Tick the Yes box on the second line of Part 5 to show you have a sole proprietorship business[4].
- Give the details of your first and second businesses in the spaces provided, and any others on a separate sheet in the same format[4].
- Gross income: all types of income, including sales of capital assets and other non-taxable income, whether or not from the principal business activity[4].
- Turnover: income from your principal business activities only, leaving out incidental or exceptional items such as profits on selling capital assets[4].
- Gross profit or loss: broadly turnover less cost of sales; if you do not trade goods and no such figure exists, enter "0"[4].
- Net profit or loss per accounts, then the assessable profits or adjusted loss from a tax computation, one computation for each business; the IRD provides a pro forma computation[4].
- Approved charitable donations made during the year[4].
- Mandatory MPF contributions you paid as a self-employed person. The maximum deduction is HK$18,000 from 2020/21 onwards, less anything you already claimed under salaries tax in Part 4.3[4].
- Two-tiered rates: tick Yes if the business is chargeable at the two-tiered rates and has no connected entities. If it has connected entities but no other connected entity elects, also complete Section 6 of the Appendix[4].
- Transactions with non-residents, and deductions for research and development, environmental protection facilities or intellectual property, each have a Yes box and their own Appendix section[4].
Which accounts to attach
If a business's gross income does not exceed HK$2,000,000, you do not attach financial statements. You must still prepare accounts, complete the return from them and keep them, because the IRD may ask for them later[4]. Above that, submit certified accounts (balance sheet and trading and profit and loss account) and a tax computation with supporting schedules; with more than one business, separate accounts and computations are needed for each one whose gross income exceeded HK$2,000,000[4].
Do not leave Part 5 blank
Even a dormant business completes items (1) and (2) and enters "0" in items (3) to (9)[4]. If Part 5 is left blank, the IRD may estimate your profits and issue an assessment, and when it computes penalties it treats the whole of the profit eventually assessed as the amount undercharged[4].
Rules that come with the return
- Rates: 7.5% on the first HK$2,000,000 of assessable profits and 15% above[5]. For 2025/26, profits tax is reduced by 100%, capped at HK$3,000 for each business[6].
- Keep business records for at least 7 years[7].
- Tell the IRD in writing within 1 month if the business ceases[7], and prepare accounts up to the date it stopped[4].
- If you take in a partner, the profits for the whole year of the change go on a BIR52 issued in the partnership's name, not in Part 5[4].
- Personal Assessment is elected in the BIR60 itself, but the IRD notes it can produce more tax than the ordinary basis where your business uses the two-tiered rates[3][8].
Box numbers and dates change between years, so follow the return and notes the IRD issues you, and its pages below, wherever they differ from this guide.