The government is optimistic that national tax revenue this year can surpass its collection target of NT$1.867 trillion (US$62.12 billion) by as much as NT$50 billion, after setting a tax revenue record for the first eight months of the year, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said yesterday.
Total tax revenue surged 6.5 percent from a year earlier to NT$1.3 trillion from January through last month, the ministry said in a monthly report.
Tax revenue for last month alone increased 18.4 percent year-on-year to NT$108 billion.
The figure for the first eight months was 3 percent higher than the ministry’s estimate, reaching nearly 70 percent of its target for the year.
THANKS TO BUSINESS
The ministry attributed the increase to the increase in the business income tax, which rose 14.2 percent from a year earlier to NT$253 billion for the first eight months.
Revenues from five other taxes — business, home, vehicle license, gifts and special sales — also set records, the ministry’s figures showed.
“Even if the tax revenue for the last four months of this year remains flat from the same period last year, we will still see annual tax revenue surpass our target by more than NT$46.3 billion,” statistics department Deputy Director Hsu Ray-lin (許瑞琳) told a news conference.
Hsu said he expected tax revenue for this and next month might show growth over last year’s results, thanks to the increase in the business tax rate on banks and insurance firms that took effect this month, as well as an expected higher revenue of business income tax on the recovering economy.
DEBT BURDEN
In related news, the average debt burden for each Taiwanese stood at NT$231,000 as of end of last month, down NT$2,000 from July’s figure, the latest National Debt Clock data showed.
As of the end of last month, the central government carried a long-term — more than one year — debt of NT$5.2861 trillion and a short-term debt of NT$125 billion, National Treasury Agency data showed.
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