Meanwhile, Hong Kong's top profits-tax earner, usually referring to a company, paid 2.07 billion HK dollars (265.4 million U.S. dollars) of profits tax, according to the department's largest statistics released here Monday.

The department did not give the names of the top earners and payers of salaries tax and profits tax, however, for the sake of privacy.

According to the department's figures, the second and third top earners in 2006-07 paid 55 million HK dollars (7.05 million U.S. dollars) and 45 million HK dollars (5.77 million U.S. dollars), 11 million HK dollars (1.41 million U.S. dollars) and 16 million HK dollars (2.05 million U.S. dollars) respectively higher than those corresponding in 2005-06.

The amount of profits tax paid by the top 10 companies in 2006-07 ranged from 2.07 billion HK dollars (265.4 million U.S. dollars) to 470 million HK dollars (60.26 million U.S. dollars), lower than the range of 2.54 billion HK dollars (325.64 million U.S. dollars) to 560 million HK dollars (71.8 million U.S. dollars) recorded in 2005-06.

Total tax revenue soared to a record high of 155 billion HK dollars (about 20 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006-07, up 7 percent from the last financial year. Income from profits tax rose 3 percent to 71.9 billion HK dollars (9.2 billion U.S. dollars) over a year earlier while that from salaries tax grew 3 percent to 38.6 billion HK dollars (4.95 billion U.S. dollars), revealed the department's statistics.

A spokesman for the department said the amount of tax paid by a handful of taxpayers does not necessarily reflect the overall revenue-collection trend.

The amounts of tax paid by a few taxpayers were particularly high, probably because they were in receipt of income other than salaries, the spokesman said.

Bonuses, commissions, allowances and share-option gains also form part of a taxpayer's assessable income..

The tax payable in Hong Kong in 2006-07 included the final tax for 2005-06 and provisional tax for 2006-07. This is primarily computed with reference to the income or profits earned by the taxpayer or company in 2005-06, according to the department.

However, as the 2005-06 provisional tax paid in the previous year could be set off against the tax charged for the year, it is difficult to ascertain the total assessable income or profits of an individual taxpayer or company from the amount of tax paid for the year, the spokesman said.

The level of profits tax paid, however, depends much on the business performance of individual companies, he added.