Authorities will likely raise tax rates on businesses, in order to improve the government's ailing finances and offset the effect of cuts to inheritance taxes, Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (
"Compared to European countries and the US, Taiwan's business tax rates are relatively low," Lin said at the Taipei-based business group's Third Wednesday Club in Taipei.
The club is made up of more than 50 top enterprises from across the country with annual revenues exceeding NT$20 billion each. Those companies include Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (
"We plan to increase the business tax rate by one to two percentage points above the current 5 percent rate," Lin said.
The amount of cumulative government debt soared to NT$2.6 trillion in 2000 from NT$600 billion in 1990, and the figures are expected to reach NT$3.9 trillion by the end of this year, Lin said, citing ministry statistics.
The government has been running deficits every year since 2000.
This year the budget deficit is estimated to reach some NT$300 billion.
The government predicts its deficit will total NT$292.9 billion next year, NT$11 billion narrower than that estimated for this year, the Executive Yuan said in a statement yesterday.
Tax revenue is expected to rise 6.1 percent from this year, it added.
Tax revenues used to contribute around 60 percent of the nation's annual budget, but the ratio has decreased to 50 percent in recent years because of the economic slowdown, Lin said.
Even so, the proposed increase in the business tax rate would be undertaken with caution in order to avoid harming economic development, he added.
In response to suggestions from entrepreneurs to cut or even revoke the inheritance tax, Lin said that a decrease in rates is inevitable, as excessively high marginal rates makes tax collection difficult.
However, revoking the inheritance tax altogether would be impossible, as it would provoke social controversy, he said.
An increase in business tax rates and a reduction of inheritance taxes are included in the midterm measures of the financial reform scheme approved by the Executive Yuan in April last year.
The midterm goals were scheduled to be carried out within one to five years after the scheme was approved.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS