E-filing glitches trap 33,000 Hong Kong taxpayers; Ombudsman cites 2022 warning
SCMP · 1 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
The Inland Revenue Department of Hong Kong has apologized after approximately 33,000 taxpayers submitted incomplete electronic tax returns through the eTAX platform due to misleading interface design and ambiguous instructions. Nearly 5,200 individuals were fined before the department took steps to rectify the situation, which included two prosecutions. An Ombudsman investigation uncovered that these technical issues were first identified in 2022 but remained unresolved for years.
Key Points
- Commissioner of Inland Revenue Benjamin Chan Sze-wai accepted "unshirkable responsibility" and apologized to affected taxpayers
- From May 2, 2025 to January 31, 2026, a total of 489,425 taxpayers attempted to file using iAM Smart digital signatures; 33,019 submitted incomplete returns
- Approximately 80 percent of the 33,000 affected taxpayers had previously and successfully filed using the same iAM Smart method in prior years
- Two taxpayers were prosecuted before the department suspended penalty enforcement and withdrew the prosecutions
- The Ombudsman confirmed that similar submission problems were flagged internally as early as 2022, yet the department failed to implement corrective measures
Why It Matters
The incident highlights systemic failures in Hong Kong's digital government services infrastructure, where user-interface flaws combined with inadequate internal quality control allowed a preventable problem to affect tens of thousands of residents. As the government pushes for broader digitalization of public services, this episode erodes public trust and underscores the urgent need for rigorous testing and responsive oversight mechanisms before deploying critical taxpayer-facing platforms .
The incident highlights systemic failures in Hong Kong's digital government services infrastructure, where user-interface flaws combined with inadequate internal quality control allowed a preventable problem to affect tens of thousands of residents. As the government pushes for broader digitalization of public services, this episode erodes public trust and underscores the urgent need for rigorous testing and responsive oversight mechanisms before deploying critical taxpayer-facing platforms .