As the Tax Reform Committee met yesterday to discuss lowering corporate income tax, a representative from a review committee said outside the venue that he would quit the panel to protest against the plan, which he said risked harming the nation’s fiscal health.
Chien Hsi-chieh, who joined the Cabinet-sponsored committee on behalf of the Alliance for Fair Tax Reform, told reporters he would quit the committee because it had been reduced to a rubber stamp for the government’s pro-business tax policies.
“It is time for me to part with a committee that has become a political pawn rather than a review [mechanism] and [instrument to] revamp the tax system to make it fairer and beneficial to all,” Chien said.
Since its creation at the end of June, the committee, headed by Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄), has recommended that the government scrap the 30-year income tax exemption for military personnel as well as that for primary and junior high schoolteachers, and reduce the gift and inheritance levy to 10 percent from the current 50 percent.
Chien said there was no room for more tax cuts as the national debt had hit NT$13.8 trillion (US$4.2 billion), while the tax burden stood at 13.7 percent.
“I will not take part in the [government’s] scheme to please business groups when doing so will sap state coffers,” Chien said, adding he would stage a street protest next month.
The vice premier told reporters later yesterday that the committee would press ahead with the tax reform, with a six-month extension to give panelists more time to review and study tax policies.
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