Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) must explain his tax payments to the Ministry of Finance within the next two weeks, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday, after they reported Ma for alleged tax evasion.
DPP Legislator Chiu Chuang-chin (邱創進) and his two colleagues called a press conference where they accused Ma of tax evasion in the legislature after visiting Minister of Finance Ho Chih-chin (何志欽).
Ma, under investigation for allegedly embezzling money from his "special allowance fund," has said that his personal fortune is the result of his family's high savings rate, which he said averaged up to 70 percent of his and his wife's monthly salaries.
This explanation, however, was called into question by DPP lawmakers.
"In 1999, the savings of Ma and his wife increased by NT$13.35 million [US$405,282], which meant that they saved NT$445,000 per month. Which is really strange, because that amount is higher than the combined monthly salary of Ma and his wife," DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said.
Tsai demanded that Ma explain how he and his wife had rapidly accumulated such a fortune even as they paid for their two daughters' living expenses and tuition fees in the US, each costing at least NT$2 million a year.
When he previously responded to embezzlement allegations, Ma said that the portion of the special allowance fund he wired into his account was spent on donations to charity groups. Chiu said that he suspected the purpose of the donations was for Ma to gain tax exemptions.
"It would be illegal for Ma to gain large tax breaks because of his donations from the special allowance fund, as the fund is supposed to be spent on public affairs," Chiu said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai