The nation’s top decisionmakers yesterday voiced different opinions regarding the ongoing debate over the capital gains tax, with Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) and central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) supporting its removal, while Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) remains a supporter of amendments proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Regarding the practice that has been widely seen as a drag contributing to the local bourse’s listless average daily turnover, Tseng and Perng said that they are in favor of removing the tax, as investors’ market returns are already included inion tax.
Chang maintained that the KMT proposal is the least controversial option and that it also has a one-month lead in the legislature’s review process.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
According to Chang, implementing the KMT’s amendments would lead to the same near-term outcome as abolishing the capital gains tax outright.
However, Chang said that once rallies at the stock market take hold, controversies would only rise again when voices calling for investors to pay taxes on gains grow strident.
“The KMT’s proposal is the path towards the least controversy as it contains a capital gains tax component,” Chang said.
The KMT version of the capital gains tax reform proposes that the 0.3 percent securities transaction tax be divided into two parts: a 0.25 percent securities transaction tax and a 0.05 percent capital gains tax. In addition, active stock traders could choose, before investing, to pay either the 0.05 percent tax on transactions as capital gains tax, or a 15 percent tax on the stock gains earned thereafter.
Meanwhile, KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) openly criticized the tax as one of the more controversial policies implemented by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, saying that he supports the removing the tax.
Tseng said that he hopes to see the KMT’s amendments complete the approval process as soon as possible to mitigate lingering uncertainties in the market. He also did not rule out abolishing the tax when prompted by lawmakers.
As of the end of last month, average turnover on the TAIEX was gauged at around NT$116 billion (US$3.54 billion), less than the NT$120 billion to NT$130 billion Tseng said he had hoped to see.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such