The government should reduce or even cancel inheritance and gift taxes to stem capital outflow and narrow the gap between rich and poor, said Chu Ping-yu (
Capital outflow to date this year is estimated at US$300 billion to US$500 billion, as businesses and individuals search for better investment returns and look to avoid heavy taxes, Chu said.
revenue rise
If the government axed the inheritance and gift taxes altogether, tax revenues could jump by NT$200 billion (US$6 billion) a year, compared with annual revenues of NT$23 billion from inheritance taxes, Chu was quoted as saying by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) yesterday.
He made the remarks on the sidelines of an insurers' summit in Kunming, China.
Chu added that even if the taxes were cut by 10 percent from the current 50 percent, the maximum rate, some of the capital would naturally return to Taiwan.
Hong Kong's experience serves as a good model, he said.
effective
The Hong Kong government revoked the inheritance tax last year, and its tax revenues rose by about 20 percent, proving the effectiveness of the policy, Chu said.
The Ministry of Finance favors retaining the inheritance and gift taxes as Taiwan does not levy taxes on capital gains. Minister of Finance Ho Chih-chin (何志欽) has said that the inheritance and gift taxes can be lowered to encourage capital returns, but must not be abolished.
Chu also gave a rosy outlook for the nation's first local insurer, thanks to the strong performance of the local bourse this year.
The insurer reported net profits of NT$1.67 billion for the first five months of the year, already surpassing its full-year net income last year. Earnings per share for the first half of the year are expected to exceed NT$4, he said.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is