Housing rights campaigners yesterday called on the government to continue property tax reform efforts amid reports that local governments planned to backtrack on raising land tax rates.
This year saw announced land values — the taxation base for land tax rates — rise by an average 30.54 percent from 2013, the largest increase in 83 years.
That has prompted vocal complaints, especially in Taoyuan, Tainan, Taichung and Yilan, with Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) reportedly agreeing to reduce the tax increase by 40 percent this year and 20 percent next year to mitigate its impact.
The average land tax rate is 1 percent and the rate for self-use residential properties is 0.2 percent.
Housing campaigners disagree with claims that the tax increase was unjustified and they urged the government to stand firm on reforming property taxes.
The rise in property prices over the last three years far exceeded the tax increase, which is adjusted once every three years, and property owners in Taipei, where property values are the highest nationwide, will end up paying, at the most, about NT$1,200 more, campaigner Lin Wan-ken (林旺根) said.
The land tax is levied according to announced land values, which are only about 20 percent of the real market values, resulting in an unfair tax system, Lin said, adding that property owners in the nation have only to pay 8.81 percent of what Japanese taxpayers pay for land tax.
The tax increase is necessary for tax reform efforts and the most vocal opponents of the tax hike are big players in the property market who should pay more taxes, Housing Reform spokeswoman Chiang Ying-hui (江穎慧) said.
The government had justified keeping land tax rates low on the grounds that there was no real-estate transaction data before the implementation of a law in 2012 requiring buyers to report transaction prices, and this year’s tax increase would make the system fairer, even though it is still far from reflecting real property values, former Taipei deputy mayor Chang Chin-oh (張金鶚) said.
“However, everyone suddenly is against it. If people oppose reform and refuse to move in a reasonable direction, society is in deep trouble,” Chang said.
Housing Movement spokesman Peng Yang-kai (彭揚凱) said local governments have the authority to adjust announced land values and they could not shift the responsibility to the central government or the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration, which formulated this year’s tax increase.
Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇), who attributed the tax increase to the KMT during a news conference Wednesday, was passing the buck, but most cities and counties that saw substantial increase in land tax have been controlled by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Peng said.
“Making compromises on land tax is breaking the [DPP’s] promise of enssuring residential justice,” Peng said, calling on the central government to honor its campaign pledge to make reasonable adjustment to property taxes.
Campaigners also urged the KMT, which threatened to stage protests against the increase, not to oppose a necessary reform just because it is in opposition.
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