In a bid to help decrease the number of vacant housing units in Taipei City and New Taipei City (新北市), the Ministry of Finance said yesterday it was considering exempting the tax on rental income for landlords in these two cities who rent their houses or apartments to middle to low-income families.
The ministry’s remarks came after the Council for Economic Planning and Development yesterday passed a draft bill for the implementation of the overall housing policy from next year to 2015, following discussions with various government agencies and local government representatives.
During the meeting, the large amount of vacant units — especially in Taipei City and New Taipei City — emerged as one of the most heated topics of discussion, She Wun-long (許文龍), deputy director-general of the Construction and Planning Agency who attended the meeting, told a media briefing.
“Both the Taipei City Government and New Taipei City Government hope the vacant units can be better utilized. Therefore, they expect any tax exemption on the rental income can be used to lure more landlords to rent their real-estate properties to middle to low-income families,” She said.
Last year, the central government granted a monthly rental aid of NT$3,600 to more than 40,000 middle to low-income families, the council said in a press release.
While saying it was considering exempting the tax on rental income, a finance ministry official said the tax alone might not be a major factor for these landlords because most landlords would be classed as high-income earners and might not necessarily be concerned about rental aid.
“Most of these people refuse to rent their units because they do not want the government, especially the National Tax Administration, to realize they own so many properties,” Deputy Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) said. “If they rent units to middle to low-income families, there would be no hiding all this information.”
However, the ministry would carefully evaluate the feasibility of a tax exemption, Chang said.
The nation’s vacant housing units totaled about 880,000 last year, with Taipei and New Taipei City having about 70,000 and 130,000 units respectively, the council’s data showed.
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