Benjamin Franklin said that only two things in life were certain: death and taxes. In Taiwan, people are hoping to avoid the first, in the form of the deadly SARS virus, by paying the second online.
Nearly 70,000 taxpayers have logged on to the Internet to file their income tax reports in the first week of the tax month, which lasts until June 2, according to the tax bureau under the Ministry of Finance.
With members of the public preferring to stay home and ride out the SARS storm, online filings appear to have doubled this year from 35,000 taxpayers who took advantage of the service last year during the same period of time, a tax bureau official surnamed Tsai said yesterday, adding that the goal of attracting 500,000 online taxpayers should be achievable.
Last year, 348,000 taxpayers out of the nation's total 4.8 million single and joint filing taxpayers, or 7.35 percent, utilized the online tax program.
Ever since the outbreak of SARS last month, authorities have been urging taxpayers to file in cyberspace and if they owe taxes, to pay with credit cards.
Over 10 percent of the nation's taxpayers charged outstanding taxes to their credit cards when the new measure was first launched last year according to the ministry.
The online tax-filing program, however, is not open to expatriate residents, whose new personal identification codes are inconsistent with those used when they opened bank accounts previously.
"Only when the nation's banks renew their system to update expatriates' new personal ID will it be possible for the online tax-filing system to be open to foreigners," said Jade Ro (羅玉蘭), foreign affairs section chief at the National Taxation Administration of Northern Taiwan.
To better serve foreign taxpayers, the administration welcomes tax-filing reports in person or by mail, she said, adding that interns will assist with tax filings.
To compete for credit-card tax payments this year, most banks have waived the NT$50 transaction fee and even offer cash giveaways and prizes to encourage their use.
Chinatrust Commercial Bank (
The ministry yesterday urged all taxpayers to file before the June 2 deadline.
The penalty for the late filing of income tax can include fines of three times taxes due, plus interest.
Anyone who attempts to evade taxes or make fraudulent statements by forging tax documents faces a maximum fine of NT$60,000 or a jail term of up to five years.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI