With the tax season getting underway, government officials suggest that taxpayers avoid tedious paperwork by taking advantage of the Taxation Department's Internet filing option.
"It's more convenient and allows taxpayers to get the results back quickly," Lin Tseng-ji (
To promote electronic filing, the department will hold a drawing for electronic filers in which prizes will be awarded, including a NT$10,000 gift certificate at a department store.
Over 640,000 taxpayers logged on to the Internet last year to file their returns, partly to reduce the possibility of exposure to SARS.
Taxpayers who owe money will be able to pay with their credit cards, as several card issuers are offering bonus packages to encourage credit-card use.
Also, most banks are retaining their practice of not charging taxpayers any handling fees for tax payments.
The Internet filing program, along with the credit-card payment option, have gained popularity since they were launched two years ago.
The ministry's statistics show that the number of filers who paid their taxes with credit cards grew from 215,000 in 2002 to 488,000 last year, an increase of 127 percent.
The amount of tax paid through credit cards doubled from NT$7.78 billion (US$235.7 million) in 2002 to NT$16.38 billion last year, suggesting that people are changing their tax-filing habits.
In addition to preferential packages that have been rolled out by banks and other financial institutions, two major international credit-card issuers are offering prize drawings to entice cardholders to use their credit cards for tax payments.
MasterCard International will distribute nearly 2,000 digital electronics items to holders of their platinum cards who pay their taxes using the cards.
MasterCard's major rival, Visa International, is offering prizes to its customers, including a first prize of NT$1 million.
"What could be a better way to pay your taxes?" said Christopher Clark, Visa International's country manager for the Greater China Region, Taiwan, at a press conference last week.
People who choose to pay their taxes with credit cards must complete the procedure 24 hours before the official May 31 filing deadline.
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