Tax revenue last month declined 9 percent from a year earlier to NT$332.4 billion (US$10.31 billion), as an economic slowdown weighed on corporate and personal income taxes, although securities transaction tax continued a rebound, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Corporate and personal income tax revenue shrank 28.5 percent and 3.9 percent year-on-year to NT$116.9 billion and 42.5 billion respectively, ministry statistics official Liang Kuan-hsuan (梁冠璇) told an online news briefing.
Firms are less active in setting aside tax expenses this year due to poor sales, while the Mid-Autumn Festival contributed to the delay the last month, Liang said.
Photo: Clare Cheng, Taipei Times
Lackluster corporate earnings in turn dampened cash dividends, which fell 13 percent from a year earlier, accounting for the drop in personal income, she said.
Still, personal income tax revenue in the first nine months of the year already exceeded the ministry's target for the entire year, and so did business, inheritance, stamp and house tax revenues, Liang said.
The business tax revenue last month grew 11 percent to NT$105.9 billion from a year earlier and expanded 5.9 percent in the first nine months from the same period last year to NT$469.1 billion, as local financial service providers benefited from interest rate hikes at home and abroad, Liang said.
Sales taxes last month picked up 6.3 percent annually to NT$12.9 billion, mainly aided by strong demand for imported cars, she said.
Securities transaction tax revenue last month spiked 24.5 percent year-on-year to NT$15.7 billion as daily turnover soared 27.6 percent to N$312.7 billion, ministry data showed.
Overall stock investment interest strengthened compared with a year earlier, although artificial intelligence-related plays saw significant price corrections, Liang said.
On the other hand, land value incremental tax revenue, a gauge of property market health, edged up 2 percent to NT$6.1 billion last month after the number of taxable cases rose 5.1 percent to 40,741, she said, suggesting a neutral reading of the changes.
Cumulative tax revenue amounted to NT$2.79 trillion in the first nine months, a 6.3 percent increase from the same period last year and ahead of the ministry's budget schedule by 12.3 percent.
The state coffers might collect excess tax revenue of NT$100 billion this year in the absence of major shocks, the ministry said.
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