TAXATION
Taiwan, Switzerland do deal
Taiwanese and Swiss companies attending exhibitions or engaging in business activities in either country can now apply for a refund of the value-added tax (VAT) they have paid to the host country, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The minnistry announced that from July 1, foreign enterprises with no regular venues to do business in Taiwan are eligible to request a VAT refund with local tax offices, as long as they have paid more than NT$5,000 in VAT for goods or services they purchased while attending trade shows or taking part in business activities in Taiwan. Following in the footsteps of Slovenia and Germany, Switzerland was the third country to have reached an agreement with Taiwan on this mutually beneficial measure. The measure is retroactive to July 1 this year.
RETAIL
Myer launches new site
Australia’s largest department store chain, Myer, will open an online business based in China in a bid to lure Australian customers with the promise of zero taxes on their goods, reports said yesterday. Myer said it would start up the Chinese site and ship goods from a warehouse in Shenzhen in a bid to dodge Australia’s 10 percent goods and services tax (GST). “We will take jobs offshore and we will ship product out of China through our Internet site,” Myer chief Bernie Brookes said, according to Fairfax newspapers. “It’s a bloody shame.” Brookes said the push aimed to give Myer a more “level playing field” with online shopping outlets, which are exempt from GST on purchases worth less than A$1,000.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda to sell Hero stake
Honda Motor Co plans to sell its stake in India’s top-ranked motorcycle maker, Hero Honda Motors, and instead focus on its wholly owned subsidiary in the country, a news report said yesterday. The Japanese automaker could earn some ￥100 billion (US$1.2 billion) from the sale of its shares in Hero Honda, founded in 1984 with India’s Hero Group, the Nikkei business daily said. Honda and the Hero Group reached a basic accord this week to dissolve their partnership, Nikkei said, adding that they will seek final approval from their respective boards of directors later this month for the breakup.
BRAZIL
New bank rules announced
Brazil’s central bank on Friday announced new bank sector requirements designed to rein in inflation by increasing the amount of money banks had to deposit with the institution. The central bank said the mandatory deposits would be raised from 15 percent to 20 percent for long-term placements and from eight percent to 12 percent for the rest. That would have the effect of withdrawing about US$36 billion from the market, thus limiting the amount of money the banks could loan to individuals.
ENERGY
Massey chairman retiring
Massey Energy Co says chairman and chief executive Don Blankenship is retiring on Dec. 30. The company said on Friday that current president Baxter Phillips will replace Blankenship. Blankenship, who joined the central Appalachian coal producer in 1982, said it was time to go after nearly 30 years with the company. The southern West Virginia native’s tenure with Massey has been marked by battles with labor and government regulators.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
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