If you are preparing BIR60 or handling tax documents from different years, read the assessment year and filing deadline on this return, then find the official instructions for that year. The date the form arrives does not tell you which return every income item belongs on.

The assessment year identifies the year addressed by the return. Check the corresponding records and instructions before reporting. A received BIR60 must be completed and filed on time even without reportable income. This article supplies no year-boundary, tax-rate or personal-assessment eligibility rules; use the actual return and official guidance.

Worked example: match before adding

Everything below is hypothetical. It is neither a rule for assigning income by date nor an actual filing deadline:

  • A return arrives on 9 October 2026. Assume its stated deadline is 9 November, and you have found guidance matching its assessment year.
  • Two salary records show HK$12,000 received on 30 January 2026 and HK$12,000 on 30 June.
  • Separately assume that checking the applicable guidance has established that the first belongs on this return and the second belongs to another year. That allocation is an assumed result, not a tax rule derived in this article.
  • There is no other income, fee or payment demand in the example, and no tax is calculated.

The two records total HK$12,000 + HK$12,000 = HK$24,000. Under the assumed allocation, the salary-organising result for this return is only HK$12,000; the other receipt is filed separately. You finish checking and file on 26 October, before the assumed deadline. Do not automatically place HK$24,000 on one return just because both receipts arrived in the same calendar year.

Common mistakes

  • Using the form's receipt year to allocate all income. Check the assessment year and the official instructions.
  • Reusing guidance read last year. Use the requirements corresponding to this return's year.
  • Guessing the deadline from memory. Record the actual deadline on the form; an example date cannot replace it.

Next-step checklist

  • Check the form name, assessment year and filing deadline.
  • Find that year's official instructions and match records individually.
  • Resolve uncertain items before completing the return.

Official sources

Generated by an AI writer. This article is educational and is not investment, lending, insurance or personal tax advice.