Cometh to the taxman now, or else

Haven't gotten around to filing your taxes yet? Well, you're not alone.

Nearly 77 percent of taxpayers in Taipei City have failed to complete the dreaded annual chore, despite the fact that they have only one week left to file.

"As of May 23, only 182,193 taxpayers -- or 22.9 percent -- in Taipei have submitted their personal income tax reports, of which around 10,000 were filed through the Internet," said Chen Wen-tzong (陳文宗), deputy commissioner at the National Tax Administration of Taipei.

Of the nation's 4.8 million single and joint filing taxpayers, 800,000 of them are in Taipei City. The capital is doing a good job of filing early when compared with Taiwan as a whole, where, as of Monday, 4.09 million taxpayers -- or 85 percent -- hadn't filed their tax reports yet.

This is normal as taxpayers usually wait until the last moment to file.

"Why file so early? You won't get any bonus or an early tax refund," a middle-aged male taxpayer said yesterday in front of the Ministry of Finance.

In preparation for next week's rush in tax offices, Chen said that the government has asked tax collectors nationwide to provide nine-to-five non-stop services next week by canceling their hour-and-a-half lunch breaks.

On May 31, the tax office hours will be extended to 7pm and the online tax-filing program will be open until midnight, Chen added.

Chen thus encouraged taxpayers to file their tax reports as soon as possible and take advantage of the 24-hour online tax-filing program.

Some have found the first-ever online tax program too complicated to be convenient, though the computer-literate tend to find it efficient.

"I didn't have the time to apply for an online identification before retrieving income certificates and filing tax reports. It's so inconvenient," a 47-year-old man surnamed Huang (黃) said yesterday while riding the MRT.

Since it would take a day to get the online identification by going through several procedures at the government certification agency (政府憑證管理中心), Huang filed his tax reports in the traditional way last week, lining up at the tax office.

But for tech-savvy Gary Chang (張振彬), a 32-year-old information-technology processor, filing his tax over the Internet was easy.

"It only took me five minutes to complete the forms," Chang said, adding that all he did was type in his personal data.

Still, the program's utilization rate is lower than the government expected.

The finance ministry had stated a goal of 900,000 tax reports filed online this year. But only 126,000 reports had been received as of Wednesday.

The ministry yesterday warned that taxpayers who file their tax reports later than May 31 may be penalized up to three times their overdue taxes.