Cash handouts continue in 2025 budget

The Wealth Partaking Scheme will be extended in 2025, providing 10,000 patacas to each permanent resident and 6,000 patacas to each non-permanent resident.

In a press conference yesterday, Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng presented the 2025 budget proposal, which includes the continuation of existing tax reductions and exemptions.

The proposal maintains a 30% deduction on personal income tax, with a basic annual allowance set at 144,000 patacas.

For employees over 65 years old and eligible employees with disabilities, the personal income tax allowance will be 198,000 patacas.

The government will also continue a 60% rebate on personal income tax for each Macau resident, capped at 14,000 patacas. Additionally, personal income tax rebates related to the fiscal year 2023 will be distributed in 2025.

Meanwhile, the government has proposed to maintain the profit tax allowance at 600,000 patacas, offer additional tax deductions for research and development expenses, waive profit tax for local businesses earning revenue from Portuguese-speaking countries, exempt stamp duty on entrance passes and tickets for cultural performances and exhibitions, and eliminate stamp duty on auctions.

The budget proposal suggests maintaining several measures including the exemption of stamp duty on the first 3 million patacas of a residential unit’s value for first-time homebuyers who are Macau permanent residents; waiver of profit tax on investment income from local bonds; exemption of stamp duty on the issuance and acquisition of such bond; and waiver of the investment fund monitoring charge.

Ho mentioned that the implementation of these new measures, along with the continuation of tax cuts, waivers, and rebates, is expected to result in a net revenue loss of 4.83 billion patacas for the government.

The proposal also recommends continuing existing subsidies for disadvantaged groups in 2025 and continuing payments to eligible employers to cover up to 14 days of basic wages for paid maternity leave for local female employees.

Lastly, the budget includes a recommendation to provide a 10,000-pataca initial allowance from the government into the personal Social Security Fund account of every eligible Macau permanent resident, along with an additional 7,000 patacas injection into their accounts.