Many small and medium enterprises, as well as small hospitals, have said that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration is discouraging them from supporting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates by threatening them with tax audits, DPP caucus secretary-general Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) said on Sunday.
The Ma administration is fomenting another era of political terror, Wong said, adding that a number of hospitals had asked DPP representatives to ask on their behalf about certain taxation items they felt are unreasonable.
However, those inquiries resulted in even heavier taxation, Wong said.
Some corporations even had their taxes inspected because they had donated to the DPP and the inspections continued until they stopped donating to the DPP or the party’s candidates, Wong said.
The Ma administration is cutting taxes for the rich, but the government’s tax revenue is severely lacking, so they are focusing on shops or small and medium-size enterprises that have slightly more income, Wong said, adding that she also heard other legislators in the party say company taxes were being inspected if the owner was considered close to the DPP.
Wong also said that under the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法), donors who donated to a political party had to write the name of the company.
“They audit businesspeople who support the DPP,” Wong said.
The government’s actions have caused corporations to hold back on donations to the DPP, which Wong said was a means to cut the party’s financial lifeline.
Another DPP legislator, who requested anonymity out of concern that it would be more difficult to raise funds, said that in the legislative elections in 2007, some donors who donated tens of thousands of New Taiwan dollars were later subjected to tax audits.
As a result, those donors became reluctant to donate again, making fundraising this year even harder, the source said.
In response to Wong’s allegations that the Taxation Agency was intimidating companies from donating to the DPP via audits, Deputy Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) said no such thing was happening.
“I was chief of the Taxation Agency for a decade and it doesn’t matter if it’s the DPP or the KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party] in power, it has never received instructions like that,” Chang said.
“Civil servants now have the concept of administrative neutrality and they would not inspect your taxes on grounds of political gain,” he said.
“How would Taxation Agency personnel know if the corporation is pan-green or pan-blue?” Chang asked.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
RSS