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Pan-purple alliance calls for fairer taxation system

The Alliance of Fairness and Justice, or the pan-purple alliance, yesterday elaborated on their policies to levy higher taxes on enterprises and the rich in order to build a sound taxation system.

However, they said that they were not trying to raise tensions between the rich and the poor, but were rather appealing to the rich to help construct a better society together with others.

The alliance called for the cancellation of the permanent unified tax system, which allowed the tax on a company's revenue to completely cancel out the shareholders' personal income tax.

"The tax on the company should only cancel out one-fifth of the shareholders' income tax, and the system should only run provisionally to allow the government to reflect on the system after a certain period," said Chien Hsi-chieh, the alliance's convener.

The alliance also hoped to cancel the tax benefits of individual shareholders who invest further in the company, as described in the Statute for Upgrading Industries (促進產業升級條例).

They criticized the incremental land-value tax and said it was based on the assessed value of a property, which usually amounted to only 40 percent of the land's actual purchase price.

This furthermore included a 40 percent tax reduction in the top taxable bracket, allowing those who own more properties an even higher reduction.

"Taiwan does not levy tax on land transactions and before the government starts to do so, we hope that it will at least base the incremental tax on the actual purchase price of the land," Chien said.

The alliance also wanted to resurrect the securities-exchange transaction tax.

It said it would only want to tax those who earn more than NT$10 million a year on the stock exchange, and the tax would be separated from normal income tax with a separate tax rate.

Lastly, the alliance hoped to levy a tax on citizens' overseas earnings.

"We hope both the pan-blue and pan-green camps can persuade enterprises and conglomerates to manage Taiwan together," Chien said.

"Only with a reasonable tax system will the government have enough funds to operate smoothly without having to borrow. And with enough money, the government can build a proper social-security network," Chien said.

The alliance yesterday also introduced some of its academic supporters.

Professor Huang Shih-hsin (黃世鑫), from the National Taipei University's department of public finance and Professor Tseng Chu-wei (曾巨威), from the National Chengchi University's department of public finance, pledged to give his support to the alliance and its tax plans.

"I see the alliance as a kind of social movement, and it presents a good opportunity to link tax reformation with the movement," Tseng said.
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