Taiwan and Germany signed an agreement to avoid double taxation on income and capital gains, and on the prevention of tax evasion, pending revisions of their respective domestic laws and notifications of any changes in their laws.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Germany is one of the nation’s major trading partners in Europe. The volume of trade between the two countries last year amounted to US$14.8 billion, an increase of 42 percent from the previous year.
Among the EU countries, Germany is the third-biggest source of foreign investment in Taiwan, with investments amounting to US$1.9 billion from 250 enterprises, while there are more than 200 Taiwanese businesses operating in Germany, with a total investment amounting to US$100 million.
encourage
The agreement is expected to create a friendly environment that would encourage bilateral investments, create jobs and enhance exchanges and bilateral ties, the ministry said.
Taiwan has made some progress this year in reaching agreement on the avoidance of double taxation with its major trading partners.
The first deal, between Taiwan and France, took effect on Jan. 1 and was followed by a similar deal between Taiwan and India in August, while another agreement between Taiwan and Switzerland took effect earlier this month.
In particular, the agreements with France, Switzerland and Germany are expected to further cement Taiwan’s bilateral economic ties with the European countries.
commodity tax
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday that the cut in commodity tax for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)-powered hybrid cars will take effect tomorrow, a move that is expected to help the nation reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
The reduction in the commodity tax on LPG hybrid vehicles by NT$25,000 (US$825) per vehicle will last for a five-year period, the ministry said in a statement.
The tax breaks for LPG hybrid car distributors may create a demand for up to 5,200 LPG hybrid cars in the next five years, which would reduce tax income by an estimated NT$136.5 million, the ministry said.
Currently, automobile companies pay a commodity tax rate of between 25 percent and 30 percent of the factory value of a car, which they then pass on to buyers, ministry data showed.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
RSS