The Cabinet yesterday approved draft amendments to the Income Tax Law (
Soldiers and teachers of junior high schools and down have been exempted from paying the income tax since 1955. The draft amendments will proceed to the Legislative Yuan for further review and, it is hoped, for final approval.
The Cabinet wants the legislature to pass the draft amendments during the next legislative session so that the changes can go into effect next January.
It is estimated that the change would affect about 300,000 soldiers and teachers and bring in about NT$13 billion annually.
The catch, however, is that the Cabinet might also increase the salaries of soldiers and teachers in a bid to compensate them for their financial losses.
At a press conference held after the weekly closed-door Cabinet affairs meeting yesterday morning, Cabinet spokesman Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) said that the amendments to the Income Tax Law are necessary.
"When the law was enacted some 50 years ago, the government offered such incentives to encourage people to teach in schools or join the military," Chuang said.
As soldiers and teachers are becoming better off than their counterparts in other sectors of the economy and are no longer classified as low-income groups, more and more people have been calling for the cancellation of such privileges over the past 10 or 20 years, Chuang said.
Statistics show that a 14th ranking lieutenant general earns as much as NT$85,600 a month and a school principle can make as much as NT$67,000 a month.
Chuang emphasized that the government would compensate for the financial losses of the teachers and military personnel concerned.
"The premier has made it clear that the government's policy is to compensate for the financial losses of those negatively affected by the change," Chuang said. "A salary hike is not a bad idea to take care of the problem, but it may take time to hammer out the details."
The Ministry of Education said yesterday that it may use the additional money to increase teachers' salaries and research expenses in addition to improving school facilities. Estimates are that the ministry will receive an additional annual income of NT$7 billion after of the change.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard