The Ministry of Finance yesterday said it collected NT$119.1 billion (US$3.98 billion) in tax revenue last month, an increase of 6.1 percent from a year earlier, bolstered by larger securities transactions and dividend payouts.
The overall gains in tax revenue came even though business activity and housing deals slackened amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Trading on the local bourse is vibrant this year, allowing securities transaction tax revenue to post growth for seven months straight,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Chen Yu-feng (陳玉豐) said.
Photo: AFP / Sam Yeh
Stock transactions generated NT$9.4 billion in tax revenue, jumping 12.5 percent from a year earlier, with average daily turnover rising 21.19 percent from NT$155.2 billion to NT$186.4 billion last month, Chen said.
Like other stock markets worldwide, Taiwanese equity markets have seen wild swings, but reclaimed most of their losses to the COVID-19 outbreak, as local tech firms have benefited from remote working and learning arrangements, which boosted demand for laptops, tablets and information technology devices.
For the first four months of this year, stock transactions rose to a new high since the global financial crisis in 2009, Chen said.
Personal income tax revenue surged 49.5 percent to NT$29.3 billion last month, attributable primarily to the quarterly distribution of cash dividends by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker.
The ministry has voiced misgivings about the continued upturn in income tax revenue, as it has pushed back the deadline by one month for personal income tax filings this year from May 31 to June 30.
It would be better to make a final judgement after the dust settles, Chen said.
His warning came after corporate income tax revenue and business tax revenue both slipped into negative territory.
Chen pinned the blame on diminished economic activity and an oil price rout, which wreaked havoc on duties from imports of oil, chemical and mineral products.
Business tax revenue might fare worse this month, which reflects partial data for last month, Chen said.
The virus outbreak also weighed on property transactions. Revenue from land value increase tax last month declined 10.7 percent to NT$7.5 billion, with the number of deals shrinking 5.6 percent to 46,545, the ministry said in a report.
Cumulative property transactions totaled 187,121 cases from January to last month, falling 3.4 percent from the same period last year, it said.
However, liquor and tobacco tax revenue held firm with a 6.8 percent increase to NT$5.6 billion, despite a decline in dinner gatherings.
The ministry collected NT$519.6 billion of tax revenue in the first four months, an increase of 9.2 percent from a year earlier and ahead of its budget schedule by 8.6 percent.
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
INFLATION CONSIDERATION: The BOJ governor said that it would ‘keep making appropriate decisions’ and would adjust depending on the economy and prices The Bank of Japan (BOJ) yesterday raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in 30 years and said more increases are in the pipeline if conditions allow, in a sign of growing conviction that it can attain the stable inflation target it has pursued for more than a decade. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s policy board increased the rate by 0.2 percentage points to 0.75 percent, in a unanimous decision, the bank said in a statement. The central bank cited the rising likelihood of its economic outlook being realized. The rate change was expected by all 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The
RSS