Levy

H

Hayzee

Registered User
We are going to terminate our 2 existing contracts and renew them in order to enjoy the $0 Levy for the next 2 years (keeping the same Helpers of course!). When we explained this to both our Helpers, they thought that we were going to pass on our savings to them! (They had obviously heard and read about all this levy cancellation news). And when we explained that it was for the Employers benefit to combat inflation etc, they acted upset and surprised that we were not automatically passing on the levy money to them!

We struggle to make ends meet here and this is a huge saving for us. We have to put 3 little kids in school and this tax break is a huge relief for us.

Did anybody elses Helper expect the money to go to them?

Just wanted to see how many Employers will be actually passing the levy saving onto their Helper.
 
I'm new to the whole helper thing but I would have though that unless you were making them pay the levy themselves (which you are not and I don't think you are supposed to anyway) whether the levy is cancelled or not would make no difference to them...
 
Domestic Helper's minimum wages got raised by HKD100 to HKD3580 in July, at the same time they were discussing cancelling the levy. My helper told me that the government told Philippino helpers that their minimum wage was going to be increased gradually over the next two years in order for them to benefit from this tax break.
Hope it helps...
 
I didn't cut my helper's salary when the levy came in and have always paid her above the minimum wage. Therefore, I will not be increasing her salary when we benefit from this tax break.

I'm really annoyed at how this tax break was implemented - we paid the levy in full on signing the contract and now won't enjoy any break until we renew the contract next May. Paying the levy 2 years in advance has certainly benefited the government - they've had the use of the $$ and interest thereon for a longer period. But we don't get a refund. We could have inconvenienced the government by paying in instalments, having to be chased for payment, etc. But we didn't. Very, very unfair !
 
hi hayzee..

Can we actually do that?Breaking the contract of our DH and sign a new contract, just so we can save the levy?I myself, just hired my son's nanny,had paid the 2400 levy.Would be great it the government would just cancel all the levy.It would be a great help to us,parents.
 
just curious as to what you will tell immigration? if you break your contract you need to pay the severance pay, trip home, all the visa fees again etc.

plus if you tell immig that you are breaking the contract due to financial difficulties, how can you then go and hire the exact same helpers back?

i would think that the gov't has/will implement some form of safeguards against people doing just this.

i'm not being critical, just genuinely curious. we won't enjoy the benefit until February next year. we just paid the levy last month....

i think it might be more of a pain if you go through with it than if you just left the contracts in place. keep in mind if you don't provide all of the "stuff" with each contract (trip home etc) that your helper could then take you to the labour board as you have not fulfilled your obligations, whether or not you "had an agreement".
 
I agree with Cara. I think u end up paying the same amount of levy in firing your DH and sending them back home, getting their visas and waiting for them to come back etc. I think more of a hassle. If u have just signed a contract then I can understand that u want to do that but if u are already half way through your contract then what is the point. Moreover if u have already paid the levy then the govt is not refunding you anything, so no point to firing and then hiring again
 
The Gov't has said that helpers who have been terminated do no have to return home and their visa renewals will be expedited if they renew with the same employer.

"As a special arrangement to protect the interests of the FDHs, the Director of Immigration will exercise discretion during the suspension period and allow the advanced renewal of FDHs' contracts with the same employers without requiring FDHs to leave Hong Kong after the existing contracts have been terminated.

http://www.lwb.gov.hk/eng/press/30072008.htm
 
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We have decided to share the levy savings with our helper.

In our situation, the next levy installment will be in late September so we will be terminating/rehiring our helper at that time. As I explained to our helper, she will be making HK$100 on the new contract permanently, and we are happy to give her an additional $200 for the period of the levy suspension. I have explained to her that if/when the levy resumes, we will no longer be giving her the HK$200 extra (so her expectation is that it is only an interim bonus and not something permanent).

Based on what I've read in the papers, it seems that the levy suspension can be maximized to almost 4 years, if you decide to go through the whole early terminate/rehire exercise again before the end of the 2 years (i.e. renew now and then renew again in June/July 2010.)

I'm anticipating that there will be a bunch of fees involved in the terminate/rehire process so for the first month of levy suspension, we will be using the HK$400 to defer those costs.

Personally I believe that it should be up to the employer to do what they like with the levy. But for us, we are quite happy with our helper and thought that this seemed like a nice way to give her a bit of a bonus without it coming from our pockets.
 
Well, we just paid our last installment in July... so the cancellation of the levy will be for the renewal in January...


However, my helper told me that quite a lot of her friends were being terminated-rehired and that the queuing at immigration and consulate were endless.
 
We paid our HKD2400 levy at the end of June and now considering terminating and renewing her contract. Ours is an Indonesian Helper, do we have to go via agency or can she renew via the immigration?
 
i've heard that unlike Philipino helpers, Indonesian helpers can only renew the contracts via the agent, hence the agent fees are part of the cost of renewing the contract if you so selected. Hope this helps.
 
bbvv said:
We paid our HKD2400 levy at the end of June and now considering terminating and renewing her contract. Ours is an Indonesian Helper, do we have to go via agency or can she renew via the immigration?
Click to expand...


Hey Vivienne, you should wait until the time when your next levy installment is due (i.e. end Dec for you?) as you are already paid up until then anyway. There's no percentage in renewing earlier for you (since the govt won't be refunding levies that are already paid) and by then, the lines at Immig should be more manageable.

Not sure if it's dif with the Indonesian consulate, but I think our Filipino helper says she can do all the paperwork herself with the Philippine Consulate and HK Immig.
 
for termination of contract and re-hire, isn't your helper entitled to a return ticket to Philippines? So minimum cost of rehire will be any admin cost, visa plus return airfare?
 
According to the papers, the govt has waived the requirement for a return trip back to the Philippines in the case of early termination/rehiring.
 
I paid my levy in late June. My agent told me there is no point to renewal contract now since, I have already paid the levy up to end of Nov and I should renewal in Oct.

Also, I asked her what payments do I need to give my helper, she said I have to give her one month notice in writing or money and ticket back to home country and ticket back to HK (this can be settled by payment since she doesn't have to physically leave HK). I would also have to pay the agent HKD1800 admin fee and HKD358 admin fee on behalf of the helper. My helper is Indonesian btw. Tickets to indonesia cost around 3000-5000 for a return ticket. So all of these costs add together and you are really going thru all this hassle and in the end you will only saving a few thousand.

Also this so called early renewal of contract is bascially early termination and then re-hire. "Early renewal" is just a nice way of putting it. I personally believe it can damage the employer/employee relationship if you don't handle it well.
 
Can someone pls. make this easy for me to understand..... i have paid the first installment of capital levy, the next installment is in September....do i still have to pay it?
 
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