Taxman targets feng shui masters after Nina Wang case in Hong Kong

Feb 3, 2010, 5:05 GMT

Hong Kong - Feng shui masters in Hong Kong are being hit with huge tax bills after a court case revealed how Asia's richest woman gave her guru hundreds of millions of dollars, a news report said Wednesday.

Tax officials have turned their attention to the city's many feng shui practitioners as a result of the sensational case over Nina Wang's will, the South China Morning Post said.

A 40-day probate hearing learned how Wang, former head of the Chinachem property empire, gave more than 2.7 billion Hong Kong dollars (350 million US dollars) to feng shui master Tony Chan, 50.

Chan, who claimed to have been Wang's secret lover for 14 years before she died of cancer at 69 in 2007, lost his case Tuesday to be the sole beneficiary of Wang's estimated 13-billion-US-dollar fortune.

But his battle with Wang's family has led to feng shui masters across the city being ordered to pay taxes on their undeclared earnings for the first time, the Post reported.

The court heard that Wang gave Chan cash sums ranging from 6 million to 2 billion Hong Kong dollars in return for his feng shui services from 1992 to 2005.

Feng shui expert Yu Chi-lun, who testified for the family, told the court he had been ordered to pay more than 500,000 US dollars in tax arrears plus a penalty after his court appearance.

'Many feng shui masters, including me, have never paid tax, but since his case, we all have to,' he said, adding that in the past, they never declared the red packets full of cash given to them.

A judge ruled Wednesday that a will supposedly signed by Wang in 2006 that left her entire fortune to Chan was a forgery and that Chan had not been a credible witness at the probate hearing.

Feng shui, the art of ordering the elements to affect a person's fortunes, is popular in Hong Kong, and masters are consulted on everything from auspicious marriage dates to house design and layout.