Soldiers and teachers could have to pay income taxes for the first time in 50 years, as the Executive Yuan approved draft amendments to the Income Tax Law (所得稅法) yesterday.
The draft will proceed to the Legislative Yuan for further review and final approval. Service members and teachers in schools up to the level of junior high have been exempted from paying income tax since 1955. When the law was enacted 50 years ago, the government offered the incentives to encourage people to teach or join the military.
As soldiers and teachers have now become better off than some of their counterparts in the private sector, and are no longer classified as low-income groups, people have been calling for the cancelation of such privileges over the past 10 or 20 years.
The Cabinet had originally hoped to see the draft pass the legislature in 2002, so the changes could go into effect in January 2003. While it failed to win support, the Cabinet resent the draft to the new legislature, which convenes Friday next week.
It is estimated that the change would affect about 100,000 soldiers and 200,000 teachers and bring in about NT$13 billion annually to state coffers. The catch, however, is that the Cabinet might increase the salaries of these people in a bid to compensate them for their financial losses.
The government has planned to use the annual government salary increase to boost teachers' and soldiers' salaries, in addition to improving school facilities.
The draft also authorized the Executive Yuan to decide when to implement the amended law. Lawmakers from across party lines yesterday welcomed the Executive Yuan's decision, but stressed the importance of mapping out supplementary measures to prevent a backlash.
DPP caucus whip Lai Ching-te (
"While such a prerogative has its own historic reasons, we're happy to see the Executive Yuan take the initiative, as soldiers and teachers are making more money than other professionals," he said yesterday. "Apart from making the tax system more fair, we hope the Cabinet can map out a well-thought-out plan to make the law more complete."
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus whip Lo Chih-ming (
Despite the TSU's support, Lo said that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is obliged to explain to both the public and the legislature why it wanted to push the passage of the draft again now.
PFP caucus whip Liu Wen-hsiung (
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
HIGH-TECH DEAL: Chipmakers that expand in the US would be able to import up to 2.5 times their new capacity with no extra tariffs during an approved construction period Taiwan aims to build a “democratic” high-tech supply chain with the US and form a strategic artificial intelligence (AI) partnership under the new tariffs deal it sealed with Washington last week, Taipei’s top negotiator in the talks said yesterday. US President Donald Trump has pushed Taiwan, a major producer of semiconductors which runs a large trade surplus with the US, to invest more in the US, specifically in chips that power AI. Under the terms of the long-negotiated deal, chipmakers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) that expand US production would incur a lower tariff on semiconductors or related manufacturing
RSS