Individuals or groups that served as a trustee to a political party or party-affiliated organization have four months to declare their assets, or face a fine of up to NT$5 million (US$165,700), the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee said yesterday.
Committee Chairman Lin Feng-jeng (林峰正) said that the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) stipulates that political parties, party-affiliated organizations and their current or former trustees are required to declare their assets within one year of the act’s promulgation on Aug. 10 last year.
“However, considering that the public might still be unfamiliar with the relevant statutes, the committee decided to extend the asset declaration deadline by four months. If you are required to file a report, but fail to do so before March 1 next year, a fine of between NT$1 million and NT$5 million will be issued,” Lin told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
Committee member Lien Li-jen (連立堅) said people might not know that they are required to declare their assets, as they are unaware of Article 8 of the act, which extends the obligation to individuals or companies entrusted with managing assets of an organization that was a political party or a party-affiliate between Aug. 15, 1945, and Aug. 10 last year.
“For example, attorney Lin Heng-chih (林恆志) in August reported a sum of about NT$64 million that was put in his trust in September 2015 by Central Investment Co (中投資產). The money was originally reserved for litigation costs,” Lien said.
Lin Heng-chih is a board member of Central Investment, which was in November last year ruled by the committee as a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) affiliate.
However, Lin Heng-chih was not the first person to be entrusted with the money, but was the only one report its existence, Lien said, adding that other trustees before him are also legally required to come forward.
He said that a fine could be issued every 10 days in the case of continued noncompliance.
Lin Feng-jeng said that so far only three of 10 parties covered by the act have declared their assets, including, in order of declaration, the China Democratic Socialist Party, the Democratic Progressive Party and the KMT.
After sending three reminders to the other seven parties, the committee decided to extend the original deadline of Aug. 11 to Nov. 24.
The act only applies to parties established before July 15, 1987, when martial law was lifted.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS