Tax revenues last year increased by NT$120.6 billion (US$4.02 billion), or 7.4 percent, from a year ago to NT$1.7429 trillion, marking the second-highest level in history, as a strong economic recovery in 2010 boosted consumption last year, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Preliminary full-year tax revenues exceeded the government’s target of NT$1.6959 trillion by NT$47 billion, the ministry said.
“Taiwan’s GDP grew more than 10 percent in 2010, which extended the momentum on consumption for last year and drove up tax revenues,” Hsu Ray-lin (許瑞琳), deputy director of the ministry’s statistics department, told a press conference.
He said the final revenue figures might exceed the government’s target by about NT$60 billion.
Business tax revenues reached their highest level ever at NT$271.5 billion, up 1.2 percent year-on-year. Revenues from the land value, housing and vehicle license taxes also hit new highs, the report said.
Commodity tax revenues grew 9 percent to NT$164.4 billion, the second-highest in history, while income tax and business income tax revenues both reached their third-highest level on record to NT$340.1 billion and NT$365.4 billion respectively, data showed.
Last month alone, tax revenues dropped 24.5 percent from a year earlier to NT$87.9 billion, with business tax revenues falling the most, followed by revenues from securities transaction, commodity and gift taxes, data showed.
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