Combined property tax revenue in the first quarter of the year soared nearly twofold annually to a new high of NT$7.29 billion (US$249.78 million), more than the sum of the previous five years, due to steep hikes in housing prices and active transactions, Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) said.
The sharp gain in property tax revenue — also known as integrated house and land sales tax — mocked a spate of unfavorable policy measures introduced by the government to induce a soft landing for housing prices, the nation’s sole listed broker said in a news release on Thursday.
Taichung’s property tax revenue increased 62 percent year-on-year to NT$1.55 billion, making the special municipality the largest contributor of property taxes in the country, Sinyi research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said.
Photo: CNA
New Taipei City ranked second with NT$1.02 billion in property tax revenue, more than doubling the NT$480 million it recorded a year earlier, Sinyi said, citing government data.
If unfavorable measures worked, property transactions and property tax revenue would have declined, Tseng said, adding that when property gains outpace tax burden increases, people make transactions.
Kaohsiung placed third, contributing NT$9.4 billion in property tax revenue, a 99 percent increase from a year earlier, Sinyi said.
Property tax revenue in Taipei rose 87 percent to NT$840 million, jumped 182 percent in Taoyuan to NT$810 million, while Tainan generated NT$640 million of property tax revenue, an 89 percent increase from a year earlier.
Property tax revenue spiked 480 percent to NT$370 million in Hsinchu County and increased 145 percent to NT$250 million in Hsinchu City.
The extension of property taxes to presale contract transfers also helped drive up overall property taxes, Tseng 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
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
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