Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) said yesterday that a comprehensive measure to raise housing taxes on luxury homes to curb real estate speculation would impact “innocent people” because property price hikes are only regional.
Lee made the remarks after Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said earlier yesterday at the legislature that the government might consider slapping “more reasonable” property taxes on luxury properties, especially for second home purchases.
“We must exercise special caution on the matter, as its impact is far-reaching,” Lee said during a joint telephone interview, adding that the ministry has begun studying how to adjust housing tax rates, which are said to be too low to reflect real housing prices.
Lee said the main problem lies in the fact that the current valuations of houses, on which the calculation of property taxes is based, are too low and that no land transfer taxes are in place to effectively rein in soaring housing prices in the greater Taipei area.
While it is not suitable to use tax measures to solve the regional house price hikes, Lee said that there are many ways to control the red-hot real estate market, including enhancing tax inspections and adopting tighter credit control for home mortgages.
On Monday, the ministry announced that land value tax exemptions would be scrapped for private owned vacant lots, effectively from Jan. 1 next year, in an effort to prevent worsening land hoarding, which is also a factor contributing to the nation’s rocketing house prices.
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