The nation’s tax revenue last month increased 13.1 percent from a year earlier to NT$302 billion (US$10.73 billion), as personal income benefited from dividend payments, but gains on securities transactions contracted amid ebbing investment interest, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Personal income tax soared 40 percent year-on-year to NT$12.4 billion, supported by dividend distributions and the absence of tax returns, Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Chen Yu-feng (陳玉豐) told a news conference in Taipei.
Corporate income tax gained 20.5 percent to NT$105.4 billion, while business tax grew 5.4 percent to NT$84.8 billion, signs that economic activity picked up following a local outbreak of COVID-19 infections, the ministry said.
Photo: Clare Cheng, Taipei Times
Sales tax increased 2.7 percent to NT$14.5 billion, as vehicles sales recovered momentum, although people consumed less fuel due to disease prevention measures, it said.
Securities transaction tax grew 28.5 percent to NT$17.8 billion, as average daily turnover on the Taiwan Stock Exchange increased 58.33 percent year-on-year to NT$365.6 billion, it added.
However, trading volume posted a 27.2 percent retreat from one month earlier to the lowest mark this year, Chen said.
Foreign investors have cut their holdings in local shares and funds have flowed to the US market on the expectation that the US Federal Reserve would soon taper its bond purchases to pave the way for interest rate hikes amid inflationary pressures.
Trading in the shares of shipping companies and steelmakers dampened significantly, Chen said.
Heavyweight technology shares also took a hit amid the global fund flows, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Land value increment tax tumbled 33.5 percent to NT$7.1 billion, after taxable deals shrank 21.3 percent year-on-year, the ministry said.
In the first nine months of the year, tax revenue logged a 22 percent gain to NT$2.24 trillion, ahead of the budget schedule this year by 19.5 percent, it said.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
In the wake of strong global demand for AI applications, Taiwan’s export-oriented economy accelerated with the composite index of economic indicators flashing the first “red” light in December for one year, indicating the economy is in booming mode, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Moreover, the index of leading indicators, which gauges the potential state of the economy over the next six months, also moved higher in December amid growing optimism over the outlook, the NDC said. In December, the index of economic indicators rose one point from a month earlier to 38, at the lower end of the “red” light.
RSS