The national treasury last month collected NT$293.2 billion (US$10.58 billion) in tax revenue, an increase of 28.5 percent from a year earlier, as all tax categories posted strong gains on the back of economic improvement, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Corporate income tax revenue soared 52.3 percent to NT$21.6 billion, while personal income tax revenue increased 17.8 percent to NT$29.4 billion, the ministry’s monthly report showed.
The gains were due to companies and individuals filing income taxes before a moratorium amid a COVID-19 outbreak was introduced last month, Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Chen Yu-feng (陳玉豐) told an online news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Allen Wu, Taipei Times
The ministry extended the deadline for tax filing from Monday last week to June 30, after health authorities on May 14 raised the nationwide COVID-19 alert to level 3 and urged people to stay home.
The ministry introduced the same respite last year to give companies and individuals affected by the health crisis more time to tackle the financial burden, Chen said, adding that the comparison base was therefore relatively low.
Local firms in a variety of sectors posted profit growth this year, thanks to inventory-building demand propelled by expectations that the world is to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic later this year.
Business tax revenue increased 19 percent to NT$85.5 billion, while sales tax revenue jumped 36 percent to NT$17 billion, the ministry said.
The government’s business climate monitor has flashed “red” for the past three months, reflecting a boom in Taiwan’s export-focused economy.
Securities transaction tax revenue grew more than twofold to NT$29.4 billion as daily turnover spiked to a record NT$578.1 billion, Chen said.
Day trading in the past few weeks contributed more than 30 percent, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Land increment tax revenue increased 25.3 percent to NT$10.9 billion, as the number of taxable cases rose 32.3 percent to 64,525, Chen said.
The robust showing suggested active trading, she said, refuting speculation that the trend was linked to an increase in selling pressures due to upcoming property tax increases.
Starting next month, houses — including presale contracts — resold within five years of purchase are subject to taxes of 35 to 45 percent, in line with the government’s effort to curb short-term property speculation.
Housing transactions picked up in New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Tainan and Kaohsiung, Chen said, citing government data.
For the first five months of this year, tax revenues totaled NT$893.2 billion, a 19.4 percent increase from the same period last year and ahead of the budget schedule by 13.1 percent, the ministry said.
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