Lawmakers are considering a new tax for the wealthy, spurred by recent comments by Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) that it would be one way to bridge the nation’s growing income gap.
Wu on Thursday said he would not rule out implementing some sort of “rich people’s tax” — aimed at high earners, big spenders or people with a large amount of assets — if there was public consensus on the issue.
The Ministry of Finance could consider a plan that would involve raising personal income taxes above a certain threshold or slapping a new tax on luxury goods, including imported luxury automobiles or cars with larger engines, he added.
However, both of these would break a 2008 promise by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) that he would not raise personal taxes during his administration.
The move has left some Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers questioning whether the president has been made fully aware of the plan.
“Do they even have a consensus on the issue? If they do, someone — either Wu or the president — will end up reneging on his word,” DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said.
While opposition party lawmakers said they would back the plan, they also expressed concern it would most likely not be carried out in the face of public pressure.
In March, the premier announced a last-minute halt to a set of revisions introducing a five-tier homeowner’s tax that would have pushed the upper tax rate to 1.8 percent, up from the current 1.2 percent. He said at the time that he didn’t think the plans “were mature.”
“I want to remind the premier that with the overwhelming Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) majority in the legislature, no one can stand in the way of their plans but themselves,” DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said yesterday. “We don’t want to see them suddenly back down on this ‘rich people’s tax’ too.”
DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said that if the Ma government was serious about the proposal, it would pursue the idea with the same amount of enthusiasm it used to promote the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
“Otherwise, it’s just an empty promise, a trick trying to sway voters ahead of the special municipality elections [in November],” he said.
Throwing her support behind the tax plan, KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) of the legislature’s Finance Committee urged the ministry to map out the proposal as soon as possible.
KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆), who is also a member of the committee, suggested the ministry could begin by charging additional taxes on luxury items.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang
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