Finance minister wants changes to inheritance taxes

Finance Ho Chih-chin (何志欽) said yesterday he would like to reform the rules on inheritance and gift taxes so that people will have "a lifetime" to transfer their assets to their children or relatives.

Speaking a seminar on tax reform hosted by the Chunghua Association of Public Finance, Ho said that under the "lifetime assets transfer" system, a person could give as a gift to others -- while he or she is alive -- the deductible amount that would be due when that person dies.

For instance, he said, parents could choose to provide financial help in the form of deductibles from inheritance tax to their children when they want to buy a house or create a business.

This means a person could choose to use the deductible amount from the inheritance tax well before dying, so that tax benefits would be used more efficiently as the transfer of personal assets between the generations becomes more flexible.

"Increasing tax efficiency" is where the country should go, not doing away with the inheritance tax or gift tax, Ho said.

Proposal vetoed

His remarks amounted to a veto on a proposal made by some businesspeople that the inheritance tax be abolished altogether so that more capital would return to Taiwan.

He said he agrees that a high inheritance tax rate would discourage local money from staying at home, and therefore supported a tax cut on inherited assets.

He added, however, that cutting the inheritance tax rate would simply increase local investment and not attract money from abroad.

He said that if tax rates on inherited assets and gifts were reduced, people would be discouraged from trying to evade taxes and government costs for collecting taxes would consequently go down.