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Taxation Agency urges public to use online system

The Ministry of Finance yesterday urged the nation’s approximately 5.2 million taxpayers to take advantage of the 24-hour online tax-filing program to complete the annual task between May 1 and June 2.

“We hope that taxpayers who make use of the online system can grow to 50 percent, or 2.6 million, this year,” Sheu Yu-jer (�?�), director of the ministry’s Taxation Agency, told a media briefing.

Those figures compare with last year’s 47 percent, or 2.45 million, out of a total of 5.25 million taxpayers.

The agency said it hoped that the number of taxpayers who complete their filing online using a government-certified identification number would exceed 500,000 this year, up from 430,000 last year, Sheu said.

Businesses that filed their taxes via the Internet hit a high 96 percent last year, the agency’s data showed.

“To file tax reports via the Internet is speedy and convenient, and it can be completed any time, anywhere in an eco-friendly and paperless way,” Sheu said.

To avoid problems during peak hours next month, the government has expanded its online tax-filing system’s capacity to accommodate a maximum of 180,000 reports per hour, or 4.32 million reports per day, said Liu Ting-liang (劉廷亮), vice director of the Ministry of the Interior’s information center.

The ministry’s data showed that a maximum of 20,000 online reports were filed between 9am and 10am on May 31 last year.

About 9,000 government certified online identification numbers are set to expire next month, but taxpayers may apply for a three-year extension, the center said.

The Taxation Agency also urged taxpayers to file their reports as soon as possible after May 1 to get their tax refunds earlier.

Tax refunds will be given out before July 31 to taxpayers who file their reports via the Internet before May 10, or else, refunds will be made after October.

The agency warned that taxpayers who file their reports after the June 2 deadline face a penalty equivalent to 1 percent of their tax dues every two days, while tax evaders face a penalty equivalent to two to three times that of their tax dues.

The agency also said taxpayers no longer have to file interest income from investments in government and convertible bonds, as a separate 10 percent tax is already imposed on such incomes.

Taxpayers should also provide supporting documents to qualify for tax deductibles for their dependents since township chiefs are no longer authorized to provide such certificates, the agency said.
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