Taiwan has been removed from the EU’s observation list of noncooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes thanks to amendments to two laws, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
The amendments were made to Article 29 of the Act for the Establishment and Management of Free Trade Zones (自由貿易港區設置管理條例) and Article 35 of the International Airport Park Development Act (國際機場園區發展條例), which now stipulate that profit-seeking enterprises engaged only in preliminary or auxiliary business activities or their delegates that purchase, import, store or deliver products in free-trade zones and are reviewed and approved by the managing authority of the zones would be exempted from profit-seeking enterprise income tax on the revenue from sales of the products, the Department of Navigation and Aviation said.
The amendments were promulgated by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Jan. 16.
The EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council in 2017 informed 64 nations, including Taiwan, that they needed to adjust their systems.
The EU thinks that the nation’s free-trade zones and international airport park treat domestic and foreign companies differently when it comes to income tax benefits, the department said.
The Executive Yuan in 2016 promised the EU that it would revise income tax benefits offered to businesses in free-trade zones and at the international airport park, assigning transportation ministry and Ministry of Finance officials to engage in bilateral negotiations with Brussels.
After proposed amendments to both acts were accepted by the EU, the Legislative Yuan approved them on Dec. 28 last year.
On Tuesday last week, the EU removed Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia, as well as 21 other nations, from its “gray list” of noncooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, which consists of nations in which tax reform discussions are ongoing.
Countries deemed noncooperative tax jurisdictions are placed on the “black list,” which includes the United Arab Emirates, Nicaragua and 13 other nations, the department said.
The amendments would help increase tax revenue, it said, adding that by making the income tax scheme clearer and more reasonable to foreign investors, it would also lower their tax burden and operational risks.
The Ministry of Finance is streamlining the formulas used to calculate the profit contribution from foreign investors and drafting amendments to subsidiary laws, which would facilitate the development of free-trade zones into international logistics centers, the department said.
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
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,