"In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes" - Benjamin Franklin

I received my tax demand in the late afternoon. It came in a green envelope - my secretary recognised it at once for what it was. She came into my office waving it and grinning. For a minute, I considered maybe not sending her a Chinese New Year hamper afterall.

The Hong Kong government determines what your preliminary taxes will be for the tax year (in my case it was for 11 months because I started working here last April and the tax year starts in March), then fires off a tax demand asking you for the full amount for the 11 months - to be paid in two instalments before the end of the next tax year. They then give you (a) a chance to object within the one month after receipt of the tax demand (b) a chance to reduce it by giving you a separate tax return to file in May.

God knows why they don't deduct from source. Lord knows why they ask for all of it in one go. Thank Heaven that I had enough savings to withstand this blow to my finances (sometimes, saving is the only right thing to do) although having said that, Hong Kong's tax rate is one of the lowest in the world - the lowest tier is 2 per cent. on your first HK$30,000, then the highest is 18.5 per cent. on the top tier, which means you'd have to earn a hell of a lot to qualify. The strangest thing is they accept payment by credit card. I get airmiles for paying tax.

The trainees here have actually taken out loans to pay their taxes - in part because the workload here has been so light that they have all been leaving the office at 6pm to blow their incomes at Prada and Gucci. We should give them more work so that they would be able to save enough money for their tax payments, the dear lambs.

I feel quite a bit poorer.