Tax revenue last month tumbled 72 percent year-on-year to NT$194.1 billion (US$6.11 billion), dragged by the different deadline for filing corporate and personal income taxes last year, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Corporate and personal income tax revenue stood at NT$8 billion and NT$7.8 billion, diving 97.4 percent and 96.4 percent respectively from the levels last year when the government granted a one-month moratorium for income tax declaration to accommodate inconveniences caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, ministry statistics official Liang Kuan-shuan (梁冠璇) told an online news briefing.
“There is no need to worry about the retreats attributable to deadline adjustments,” Liang said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Tax revenue in the first seven months gained 9.2 percent to a record high of NT$2.29 trillion and ahead of the budget schedule by 15.6 percent, thanks to marked increases in revenue of corporate and personal income, business, stamp, tariff, house and car license taxes, she said.
The uptrend would likely be sustained as the nation’s economy is about to emerge from a slowdown and help energize business activity, Liang said, adding that the state coffers would also receive a boost from higher property and house taxes.
Securities transaction tax revenue, the main drag last year due to a bear market, spiked 57.1 percent to NT$22.3 billion, as the local bourse benefited from the global artificial intelligence boom.
Prices of local shares involved in supply of artificial intelligence hardware devices have more than doubled in recent months, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Daily stock turnover soared 69.3 percent year-on-year to NT$459.2 billion last month and has hovered at about similar levels so far this month, Liang said, adding that securities transaction tax revenue would beat the budget target by a big margin if that momentum sustains for the rest of this year.
Land value incremental tax revenue, a major gauge of property transactions, amounted to NT$6.9 billion, rising 7.6 percent from a year earlier, the ministry said.
Liang refrained from interpreting the increase as a recovery in the property market, saying longer observation would be necessary as the government has introduced a series of measures to curb property price hikes.
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