2025 Legislative Council Election Preparations: Staff Trained for Efficient Polling and Counting Procedures

EAC Chairman inspects briefing and training sessions for electoral staff of 2025 Legislative Council General Election

The following is issued on behalf of the Electoral Affairs Commission:

The 2025 Legislative Council General Election (LCGE) will be held on December 7 (Sunday). The Registration and Electoral Office (REO) has arranged in the past few weeks a number of briefings and training sessions for electoral staff responsible for different duties to enhance their understanding of the polling and counting procedures and various details. The Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC), Mr Justice David Lok, inspected three of these briefings and training sessions, which took place on October 27, yesterday (November 18) and today (November 19) respectively, to see for himself the preparatory work by electoral staff.

Today's hands-on practice was designed for the electoral staff responsible for counting duties for functional constituencies (FCs) at the Central Counting Station (CCS) on the polling day. The electronic counting system was introduced for the first time for the FCs in the 2025 LCGE, with the aim of ensuring that the election will be conducted openly, honestly and fairly, while at the same time applying technology to enhance the counting efficiency. Today's practice, arranged by the REO, primarily provided the relevant staff with enhanced training and joint drills, covering hands-on practices on each step of the entire process from the arrival of ballot boxes at the CCS to the completion of counting, as well as the fallback contingency measures, to ensure that the counting process will be conducted in an accurate and efficient manner.

As for yesterday, the REO conducted a training session for the staff responsible for issuing ballot papers and counting duties for geographical constituencies (GCs) at the normal polling-cum-counting stations, enabling them to familiarise themselves with issuing ballot papers using the Electronic Poll Register System and its fallback mode, as well as the manual counting process for GCs, thereby ensuring that they fully understand the arrangements of the polling-cum-counting stations.

The staff participating in the briefing on October 27 are mainly responsible for counting duties for the Election Committee constituency (ECC) on the polling day. Representatives from the REO briefed the staff on the counting workflow and the electronic counting system to be adopted for the ECC, followed by a demonstration on the operation of the counting machine and the relevant system to enhance the staff's knowledge of the counting duties for that constituency.

Mr Justice Lok said after the inspection today that the recent briefings and series of training sessions could effectively enhance the staff's knowledge of the relevant workflow and system operations. He thanked the staff wholeheartedly for their hard work and encouraged them to continue to exert themselves to enable smooth polling and counting on the polling day.

EAC members Professor Daniel Shek and Mr Bernard Man, SC, also inspected the briefing on October 27 and the hands-on practice today with Mr Justice Lok.

After the close of poll of the 2025 LCGE, a majority of the Ordinary Polling Stations will be converted into counting stations immediately for the counting of GC votes, while the ballot boxes of all FCs and the ECC will be delivered to the CCS at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre for counting with the electronic counting system. As the polling and counting arrangements involve multiple procedures, the REO will continue to arrange more training sessions and simulation exercises for the electoral staff to enhance their co-ordination and response capabilities for making a detailed and comprehensive preparation for the LCGE.

EAC Chairman inspects briefing and training sessions for electoral staff of 2025 Legislative Council General Election Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

EAC Chairman inspects briefing and training sessions for electoral staff of 2025 Legislative Council General Election Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

EAC Chairman inspects briefing and training sessions for electoral staff of 2025 Legislative Council General Election Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

EAC Chairman inspects briefing and training sessions for electoral staff of 2025 Legislative Council General Election Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

EAC Chairman inspects briefing and training sessions for electoral staff of 2025 Legislative Council General Election Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

EAC Chairman inspects briefing and training sessions for electoral staff of 2025 Legislative Council General Election Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

IRD issues profits tax, property tax and employer's returns for 2025-26

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) today (April 1) issued about 270 000 profits tax returns, 120 000 property tax returns and 340 000 employer's returns for the year of assessment 2025-26, and will issue about 2.77 million tax returns for individuals on May 4. Taxpayers and employers are generally required to file their returns within one month from the date of issue of the returns. For cases with tax representatives appointed, the deadlines for filing returns are set out in the Block Extension Letter on the IRD's website.

The IRD encourages taxpayers to file their tax returns through eTAX. Individual users can use "iAM Smart" to log in and sign their tax returns (signing is only applicable to holders of 'iAM Smart' accounts with the digital signing function). They may also download the eTAX mobile application to handle their individual tax matters on their mobile devices. Taxpayers may visit the IRD's website for frequently asked questions and answers on how to complete tax returnsand guidance on electronic filing of employer's returns.

Employers may use the IR56 Forms Preparation Tool to prepare and submit all types of IR56 Forms (i.e. Forms IR56B/E/F/G/M) electronically when filing their employer's returns. This tool can be used online without installation. Employers can learn about the details of the tool on the IRD's website.

Profits tax payers are also encouraged to file tax returns electronically together with supporting documents (including financial statements and tax computations) in inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (iXBRL) format. The IRD provides the IRD Taxonomy Package (the Taxonomy) and the IRD iXBRL Data Preparation Tools (the Tools) to help taxpayers prepare the required iXBRL data files. Taxpayers may visit the IRD's websitefor downloading the Taxonomy and the Tools. For enquiries on the iXBRL filing requirements and the use of the Tools, taxpayers may contact the IRD by email: ixbrl_reporting@ird.gov.hkor book a specific timeslot through the IRD's e-Appointment system for making enquiries on phone.

The first phase of mandatory electronic filing of profits tax returns also came into effect today (April 1). The relevant entities of in-scope multinational enterprise groups subject to the global minimum tax regime are required to file their profits tax returns electronically from the year of assessment 2025-26 onwards. Details are available on the IRD's website.

The IRD reminds taxpayers and employers to pay sufficient postage to ensure timely delivery if they submit their returns by mail. Underpaid mail items will not be accepted by the IRD. Postage rates are available on Hongkong Post's website.

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