Amid rising complaints about increased land tax, the Executive Yuan yesterday announced an extension to the tax filing deadline and urged owners of self-use residential properties to apply for a preferential tax rate.
The deadline for self-use residential property tax submissions, which expired on Sept. 22, will be extended to Nov. 30, and property owners who had made the tax payment are eligible for a rebate.
The average land tax rate is 1 percent, and the rate for self-use residential properties is 0.2 percent, but many people who are in the 0.2 percent tax bracket did not apply for the preferential tax rate, Taxation Administration Director-General Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) said, calling on the public to correct their tax returns or apply for a rebate.
“The Ministry of Finance decided to extend the deadline as a remedial measure as many did not understand which bracket they belong to when filing taxes,” Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
This year saw announced land values — to which the land tax rates apply — rise by an average 30.54 percent from 2013, which was the largest increase in 83 years.
A dramatic increase in taxes has been reported nationwide, especially in Taichung and Yilan County, sparking a lot of complaints.
“Announced land values are adjusted every three years, and this year’s adjustment was made as early as August last year by the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration,” Hsu said.
For people who have difficulty paying the taxes, the ministry has authorized local governments to extend payment deadlines or set up installment payment plans, Deputy Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) said.
Of the 8 million households eligible for the preferential tax rate, only about 3 million filed the taxes using the correct rate, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokeswoman Chiu Li-li (邱莉莉) said.
Chiu added that at a meeting of the DPP’s Central Standing Committee yesterday, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) asked the Executive Yuan and local governments to disseminate the information as widely and rapidly as possible to ensure citizens’ rights are upheld.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of the Interior Hua Ching-chun (花敬群) denied allegations that Yilan County, which saw a 118 percent increase in land tax values, the highest in the nation, planned to recalculate the county land tax because of widespread public dissatisfaction.
The county government miscalculated the land tax of more than 900 properties, causing the tax level to rise dramatically, and the county government would correct the mistakes rather than launching a countywide recalculation, Hua said.
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