The Ministry of Finance on Thursday said it would next week announce plans to levy corporate income taxes on cross-border e-commerce operators in a bid to close loopholes that have allowed international e-commerce firms to evade taxes.
The plan is aimed at multinationals without physical outlets or offices in Taiwan, the ministry said in a statement.
International e-commerce operators often choose not to set up physical branches in overseas markets, but instead run their businesses on digital platforms, which enable them to dodge taxes.
Profits generated by foreign e-commerce companies, which sell services via the Internet or other electronic devices to Taiwanese consumers with the help of local enterprises or residents, should be subject to corporate income tax, the statement said.
The corporate income tax rate for this type of cross-border e-commerce company should be 20 percent, it said.
The levy is to take effect in May and income generated by such transactions this year should also be subject to the levy, it said.
The move marks another step toward preventing tax avoidance, after the ministry earlier this year began imposing a 5 percent business tax on cross-border transactions by e-commerce companies.
Foreign companies supplying e-commerce services to Taiwanese customers with annual sales of at least NT$480,000 are starting in May to be required to apply for business registration certificates and pay business taxes directly or indirectly, regardless of where they are based.
In December last year, the legislature passed an amendment to the Value-Added and Non-Value-Added Business Tax Act (加值型及非加值型營業稅法修正案) that requires international e-commerce operators to register their presence with the tax authorities or face a fine of up to NT$30,000.
The amendments are in line with the OECD’s base erosion and profit-shifting scheme, which aims to prevent tax avoidance by multinationals and resolve cross-border tax disputes.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
Artificial intelligence (AI) giant Nvidia Corp’s most advanced chips would be reserved for US companies and kept out of China and other countries, US President Donald Trump said. During an interview that aired on Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes program and in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said only US customers should have access to the top-end Blackwell chips offered by Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization. “The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States,” he told CBS, echoing remarks made earlier to reporters as he returned to Washington
RSS