Despite the recent passage of an amendment to the Income Tax Act (所得稅法) that cancels the decades-old income tax exemption for teachers and military personnel, Taxation Agency officials said the treasury would not see any of that money as the entire amount would be used on complementary measures designed by government agencies.
The amendment will come into force at the beginning of next year and affect about 350,000 individuals, including the active duty military personnel and teachers at day care centers and kindergartens as well as at public and private elementary and junior high schools.
Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) had initially said national coffers would receive an estimated NT$16 billion (US$487.8 million) in additional tax revenues annually.
Taxation Agency officials, however, said the Ministry of National Defense (MND) would redirect the extra income to increase pay for staff doing voluntary military service — at a cost of NT$5.73 billion — while the Ministry of the Interior would spend NT$410 million on staff at daycare centers and temporary assistants, as well as on care service for preschool children.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) would use the extra money to hire administrative and counseling officials, increase pay for kindergarten, elementary and high school tutors, and cut class hours for elementary and high school teachers to the tune of NT$9.81 billion, the officials said.
Officials said that in the short term the measures meant the treasury would not see any increase in revenue, but said that in the long run national coffers would gradually benefit from the end to the tax exemptions.
To accommodate the MOE’s measures, the Cabinet passed amendments to the Compilation and Administration of Education Expenditures Act (教育經費編列與管理法) and the Preschool Education Act (幼稚教育法).
Deputy Minister of Education Wu Tsai-shun (吳財順) said taxes collected from 194,000 kindergarten, elementary, and high school teachers would total NT$9.8 billion.
Wu said the education ministry would use NT$2.5 billion to hire more elementary school administrators and high school tutors, while NT$2.9 billion would be used to adjust pay for kindergarten, elementary and high school tutors by between NT$2,000 and NT$4,000 per month. Finally, NT$4.4 billion would be used to cut the number of hours taught by teachers at elementary and high schools by four hours per week and two hours per week respectively, he said.
Wu said the MOE would not stand in the way if schools hired more teachers as a result of the cuts in the number of hours taught, adding it hoped schools would turn to part-time teachers already there first.
MND spokesperson Yu Si-zu (虞思祖) said that to avoid a drop in real wages, the MND would increase pay for soldiers doing voluntary service, adding that details would be given at a later stage.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
RSS