The New Power Party (NPP) will propose a taxpayer protection act, NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said yesterday.
“We will propose a draft legislation on the protection of taxpayer rights this session,” he said at a public hearing on taxpayer rights at the Legislative Yuan.
Huang cited the need to address the issue of “eternal” tax assessments, which perpetually cycle through the legal appeals system.
“When someone does not agree with the government’s assessment, even if they win an appeal at the Supreme Administrative Court, the case would be sent back to the original agency and if they make a similar assessment, the only option is to through the appeals process again in a never-ending cycle,” he said, adding that the draft legislation would set up a separate tax court system to address the problem.
National Taiwan University professor of law Gee Keh-Chang (葛克昌) said the tax law denies many common rights to taxpayers.
“We do not have the sense of not penalizing people arbitrarily. Things like the right to remain silent and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, which apply in criminal law, disappear in tax law — you are actually required to prove that you have cooperated fully,” he said, adding that some judges have been unwilling to use the principle of “proportional punishment” in tax cases, because it is not explicitly included in tax law.
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), an accountant and president of the Republic of China Association of Tax Agents, said government auditors should bear responsibility if their assessments are overturned in court, because of the high costs that appeals place on businesses.
“The appeals process is extremely drawn out and not all small business have the resources to hire their own lawyers or accountants,” she said. “While they are making an appeal, they still have to bear the burden of paying for the assessment, which could involve their home and bank accounts being frozen. Your company could go bankrupt even if you win the appeal.”
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
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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