The Cabinet yesterday sent a proposal to extend the 50 percent reduction in day trading transaction taxes introduced last year by three more years to the legislature.
The cut took effect on April 28 last year, reducing day trading transaction taxes from 0.003 percent to 0.0015 percent for one year with the aim of boosting transaction volumes.
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that it wants to extend the tax cut until April 27, 2021, because the measure has been effective in stimulating the local bourse.
The tax cut is also to be extended to trading companies and securities brokers from April 27, to maintain trading momentum.
The tax cut has boosted day trading volumes from NT$10.4 billion to NT$35.3 billion (US$356 million to US$1.2 billion) per day, with daily turnover from day trading growing from 9 percent to 21 percent on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, and from 16 percent to 30 percent on over-the-counter Taipei Exchange, Deputy Minister of Finance Wu Tzu-hsin (吳自心) said.
Day trading tax revenue also grew from NT$31 million to NT$54 million per day, Wu said.
“The TAIEX outperformed the global stock market with a nearly 45 percent increase, partly due to the tax cut and global economic trends,” Wu said.
The tax cut has helped stimulate day trading and general trading activities, and the increase could make up for losses in tax revenue, the Ministry of Finance said.
The effect of the extension remains to be seen, but the upward trend in the global stock market and continuing increase in daily turnover on the TAIEX are expected to help increase tax revenue, Wu said.
Premier William Lai (賴清德) said the tax cut extension was proposed to ensure policy continuity and eliminate investment uncertainty.
Lai has called on the Legislative Yuan to expedite the process.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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