Over 200 school bands and orchestras to perform at Hong Kong Youth Music Interflows
The 2026 Hong Kong Youth Music Interflows, organised by the Music Office of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), will be held in November and December. More than 200 bands and orchestras from local primary and secondary schools will participate in the interflows to have exchanges and gain performing experience.
About 80 orchestras will participate in the Chinese Orchestra Interflow in six classes at the Auditorium of the Tuen Mun Town Hall from November 16 to 19.
For the Symphony Orchestra Interflow, about 60 orchestras in four classes will perform at the Concert Hall of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre from November 23 to 25.
About 50 orchestras will participate in the String Orchestra Interflow in four classes at the Auditorium of the Yuen Long Theatre from December 8 to 10.
About 90 bands will take part in six classes in the Symphonic Band Interflow at the Arena of Queen Elizabeth Stadium from December 1 to 4. The top two Gold Award winners of each class (if awarded) will be invited to participate in the Symphonic Band Extravaganza on December 5 and compete for the Tom Lee Cup in the primary and secondary school categories.
Tickets for the Chinese Orchestra Interflow are now available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk). Those for the Symphony Orchestra Interflow, String Orchestra Interflow, as well as Symphonic Band Interflow and Extravaganza will be available from October 23, November 9, November 2, and December 1 respectively. Tickets for each performance are priced at $80. For the primary school classes of the String Orchestra Interflow, Symphony Orchestra Interflow, and Symphonic Band Interflow, and for the Symphonic Band Extravaganza, each person can purchase a maximum of two tickets each time. For telephone bookings, please call 3166 1288. For programme enquiries, please call 2796 7523 (string orchestra and symphony orchestra), 2158 6466 (symphonic band) or 2598 8335 (Chinese orchestra), or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/mo/activities/hkymi/2026.html.
The Chinese Orchestra Interflow is one of the activities in the Chinese Culture Promotion Series. The LCSD has long been promoting Chinese history and culture through organising an array of programmes and activities to enable the public to learn more about the broad and profound Chinese culture. For more information, please visit www.ccpo.gov.hk/en.
Source: AI-found images
Inland Revenue (Amendment) (Tax Deductions for Intellectual Property Expenditure) Bill 2026 gazetted
The Government published the Inland Revenue (Amendment) (Tax Deductions for Intellectual Property Expenditure) Bill 2026 (the Bill) today (October 16) to suitably relax the tax deduction arrangements for relevant capital expenditure incurred by enterprises for purchasing Intellectual Property (IP) rights or for the licence to use IP rights.
A spokesman for the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said, "The Bill puts into effect the measure announced in the 2025-26 and 2026-27 Budgets to further enhance the tax deduction arrangements for local IP, lowering the costs of IP transactions to facilitate more IP trading activities and support the development of knowledgeintensive industries in Hong Kong."
The Bill proposes to relax the IP-related tax deduction arrangements by allowing tax deductions for relevant capital expenditure incurred by enterprises in respect of the following:
(1) Purchase of eligible IP rights from associates: allowing tax deduction for capital expenditure incurred by enterprises for the purchase of eligible IP rights from associates, such as group affiliates, to encourage multinational enterprises to centralise their IP management in Hong Kong, and to facilitate domestic intra-group transfer and business activities;
(2)Purchase of eligible IP rights which are used by a licensee outside Hong Kong: where the licensing income from the eligible IP rights is regarded as arising in or derived from Hong Kong under the foreign-sourced income exemption regime and is chargeable to profits tax in Hong Kong, the capital expenditure incurred for the purchase of the IP rights may also be allowed for tax deduction on a proportionate basis; and
(3)Upfront licence fee for the use of eligible IP rights in a licensing arrangement: to further encourage IP development and commercialisation, tax deduction can be allowed for upfront licence fees incurred by enterprises for the use of eligible IP rights in a licensing arrangement.
The amendments proposed in the Bill will apply to contracts entered into on or after April 1, 2026, for the purchase of eligible IP rights or for the licence to use eligible IP rights.
To safeguard Hong Kong's tax base and prevent abuse of the tax deduction arrangements, the Bill provides for a series of rigorous safeguard measures. These include introducing a main purpose test for the purchase of IP rights from associates, providing for the calculation of the deduction amount for the capital expenditure incurred for the purchase of IP rights from Hong Kong associates, and where the capital expenditure incurred for purchasing eligible IP rights from non-Hong Kong business associates or acquiring a licence from associates for the use of eligible IP rights exceeds a specified threshold, a third-party independent valuation report is required to substantiate the tax deduction claim, so as to prevent excessive tax deduction.
The spokesman continued, "The Government has been actively promoting the development of IP trading and financing in Hong Kong. Following the implementation of the concessionary tax rate under the 'patent box' initiative, the Bill will further enhance Hong Kong's IP tax ecosystem. The introduction of more flexible tax deduction arrangements, whilst upholding our tax principles, will incentivise more local and overseas enterprises to select Hong Kong as their preferred platform for cross-border technology transfer and IP financing, thereby bolstering Hong Kong's development into an international innovation and technology centre and a regional IP trading centre, in alignment with the National 15th Five-Year Plan."
The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council for First Reading and Second Reading on October 28.
Source: AI-found images
