*****************************************
The Revenue (Abolition of Estate Duty) Ordinance 2005, which empowers the Secretary for Home Affairs to provide a series of support services for estate beneficiaries, will come into effect tomorrow (February 11, 2006).
The new services aim to safeguard the interests of beneficiaries in the estates of individuals who passed away on or after February 11, 2006. These include:
(a) issuing a certificate for release of money to meet funeral expenses of the deceased or maintenance of former dependants of the deceased;
(b) issuing a certificate for inspection of the safe deposit box kept at a bank in the name of the deceased, sending public officers to witness the inspection and, where necessary, assisting in the preparation of an inventory of the items contained in the box;
(c) issuing an authorisation for removal of a specified document or article from the safe deposit box kept at a bank in the name of the deceased; and
(d) issuing a confirmation notice in respect of a small estate wholly made up of money and not exceeding HK$50,000 in value. The confirmation notice will exempt parties dealing with the estate in question from the provisions prohibiting the intermeddling of estates.
"The Estate Duty Office of the Inland Revenue Department will provide the new support services to the public," a spokesman for the Home Affairs Bureau said today (February 10).
The Secretary for Home Affairs has delegated the relevant authority to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue for at least one year.
People can visit the Estate Duty Office of the Inland Revenue Department at 5/F, Revenue Tower, 5 Gloucester Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, if they would like to apply for the new support services. Enquiries on the application procedures and related matters may be made via the hotline of the Estate Duty Office at 2594 3240 or by e-mail at taxedo@ird.gov.hk.
New provisions have been introduced to provide for sanction against the intermeddling of estates.
"It is a criminal offence to take possession of or administer any property of a person who died on or after February 11, 2006, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse.
"A person guilty of intermeddling shall be liable on conviction to a fine of $10,000 and an additional penalty equal to the value of the intermeddled part of the estate or the intermeddled part of the income of the estate," the spokesman said.
Information booklets and leaflets on the application procedures for the new support services and the new provisions prohibiting the intermeddling of estates are available at the Public Enquiry Service Centres of the Home Affairs Department, the Estate Duty Office of the Inland Revenue Department, the Probate Registry, the Service Units of the Social Welfare Department and the Deaths Registries. People may also access the thematic website on support services for estate beneficiaries at www.hab.gov.hk/estates for information on the new services.
Ends/Friday, February 10, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:10
NNNN
