The Ministry of Finance has yet to formulate a plan for raising the real estate tax, Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) said yesterday, adding that his focus for now is to promote the fiscal reform package unveiled earlier this week.
Chang made the remark in response to media reports saying changes to the property tax would be reviewed next year at the earliest.
The ministry announced earlier this week details of its proposed fiscal reform package, which includes raising the business tax for banking and insurance institutions and increasing high-income group’s consolidated income tax.
Chang said that reforming the property tax could be the next step in the finance ministry’s bid to pursue long-term fiscal soundness.
However, the ministry has not yet thought out the details of a property tax reform, he added.
“For now, I only care about the fiscal reform package,” Chang told a media briefing after attending a broadcast yesterday morning.
Fiscal reform has to be taken step by step, he said, adding that the package would have a limited impact on society and should be launched first, as the global economic recovery this year would lend support to its implementation.
“If the legislature does not pass the package, we cannot work out the tax changes,” Chang added.
He urged the legislature to pass the proposed amendments before the end of the current legislative session to improve the nation’s deteriorating finances.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last