The government plans to levy a special consumption tax on short-term land transactions and luxury goods, Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) said yesterday, in yet another bid to rein in soaring property prices.
Lee’s remarks confirmed a report by the Chinese-language Commercial Times that the Cabinet held a closed-door meeting on the issue last Friday to help distribute the nation’s income in a more equitable fashion.
“More discussion will be needed as different ministries remain divided on the levy,” Lee said by telephone. “The ministry will disclose details once a consensus is reached.”
The minister refused to elaborate to avoid stoking unnecessary controversy.
However, the ministry reportedly proposed imposing a special consumption levy on land transfers for which ownership lasts less than a year, the daily said, citing unnamed sources. Currently, short-term ownership allows landowners to bypass the annual land tax.
The ministry intends to apply the levy on all short-term land transactions nationwide, but the Ministry of the Interior suggested targeting the greater Taipei area, where property prices are considered unreasonably high, according to the newspaper.
The preliminary tax plan seeks to subject all short-term land transfers to the special levy whether they generate profits or not, the paper said, adding that it would extend to purchases of high-end import cars, jewelry, golf memberships, brand-name handbags and other luxury goods.
Lee said he considered it wise not to comment on the report before the differences were settled.
Still, the special consumption tax plan marked the latest in a series of measures to cool the nation’s property market.
Early last week, the Cabinet reinstated the idle land tax, whereby local governments may fine owners with idle or underused plots of land to curb hoarding.
On Friday, the Financial Supervisory Commission joined the tightening campaign, holding a discussion on whether to raise risk controls and minimum capital requirements for land acquisitions by insurance companies.
The commission said it was time to revise relevant measures to reflect changes in the macroeconomic environment in recent years.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by