Just finished my Hong Kong tax return in under 18 minutes. You copy over a few numbers from your pay slip, apply a few deductions, and that's it. The top tax rate for salary tax in HK is 15% this year (last year it was 16%, but hey, the government made too much money, so they just returned everyone half of the tax they had collected (subject to a cap)). No taxes on capital gains, interest, etc. Can't complain, really.
(US citizens and green card holders pay US taxes, of course... (unless they're lucky enough to be dual citizens, and reside outside the US). And, if give up your US citizenship, or give up your green card (or the government rescinds your gree ncard!), you are subject to an exit tax of some 40% or so on your net wealth...)
On a different note, I've just completed sailing class (HKSF, level 1&2), that was a lot of fun. And great people, too. I'll carry on with it. The first two days the weather was awful, but the last two days it was brilliant. Mediterranean. Really nice.
Finally, a couple of good links (or, to be more precise, first two links to boring virtual presences representing good real places, then three links to good websites representing no real place):
Enoteca - my favourite restaurant in HK (well, it's just across the road, too, but the pizza and tapas are tasty, and the staff very friendly, and they have a good selection of wines open, as the name implies).
Chilli Fagara - Sichuan food. Spicy. Good for Western visitors (and me), in my opinion, in that it gets the spices and taste right (as far as I can tell), but has (what Westerners would consider) proper meat, rather than the mix of bones and skin and tendons that seem to be characteristic of authentic Sichuan food.
Kiva - Allows you extend a micro credit to a borrower in a developing country.
CouchSurfing - Allows a traveller to stay on someone else's couch, on a reciprocal basis.
Stickk - Allows you to enter a binding contract to help you fulfill a commitment to yourself, e. g. to lose weight, quit smoking, etc.
(US citizens and green card holders pay US taxes, of course... (unless they're lucky enough to be dual citizens, and reside outside the US). And, if give up your US citizenship, or give up your green card (or the government rescinds your gree ncard!), you are subject to an exit tax of some 40% or so on your net wealth...)
On a different note, I've just completed sailing class (HKSF, level 1&2), that was a lot of fun. And great people, too. I'll carry on with it. The first two days the weather was awful, but the last two days it was brilliant. Mediterranean. Really nice.
Finally, a couple of good links (or, to be more precise, first two links to boring virtual presences representing good real places, then three links to good websites representing no real place):
Enoteca - my favourite restaurant in HK (well, it's just across the road, too, but the pizza and tapas are tasty, and the staff very friendly, and they have a good selection of wines open, as the name implies).
Chilli Fagara - Sichuan food. Spicy. Good for Western visitors (and me), in my opinion, in that it gets the spices and taste right (as far as I can tell), but has (what Westerners would consider) proper meat, rather than the mix of bones and skin and tendons that seem to be characteristic of authentic Sichuan food.
Kiva - Allows you extend a micro credit to a borrower in a developing country.
CouchSurfing - Allows a traveller to stay on someone else's couch, on a reciprocal basis.
Stickk - Allows you to enter a binding contract to help you fulfill a commitment to yourself, e. g. to lose weight, quit smoking, etc.