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.
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