Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) on Saturday said that if elected president, he would levy additional taxes on wealthy people that would earn the government about NT$160 billion (US$5.14 billion) annually.
As one of the richest people in the nation, he has a better understanding than many about how to tax wealthy people, he said.
“While others expect to collect only NT$8 billion to NT$15 billion in taxes on rich people, my method is expected to collect as much as NT$160 billion,” Gou wrote on Facebook.
After entering the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) primary, in which he is one of five candidates, Gou called for a new tax on the richest people to encourage them to shoulder a bigger burden of social welfare costs.
“The richest people should bear a greater share of the social responsibility,” he said, adding that his “special taxation” program would collect taxes from the richest 1,000 people in three brackets.
As a vocal critic of the efforts of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration to reduce the retirement benefits of military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers, Gou has repeatedly said that an additional tax on wealthy people would be the right move in pushing for social welfare.
A low birthrate and an aging society are the most pressing threats facing Taiwan, and a new tax on rich people would be an ideal way to expand the government’s coffers and help the nation solve these social problems, Gou said.
In a bid to boost the nation’s birthrate, he promised that if he is elected, his government would cover childcare costs for children aged six or under.
Former Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), another KMT presidential hopeful, said Gou’s proposed tax could have a negative effect.
There were only 123 people in Taiwan who paid personal income tax of more than NT$100 million last year, Chu said.
Chu urged Gou to check his data before calculating how much tax revenue his proposal would bring in.
“Do not kill the goose that lays golden eggs,” Chu said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS