The Taiwanese company that won the auction for the 50th home run ball hit by Los Angeles Dodgers superstar slugger Shohei Ohtani would be exempt from paying customs duty on it, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The ball, which Ohtani hit out of the park to become the first player in Major League Baseball to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in one season, was purchased earlier this month by the Taiwanese private investment firm UC Capital Ltd (優式資本) for US$4.392 million.
Imported baseballs are typically subject to customs duties of 3.3 percent to 10 percent, with a rate of 3.3 percent assessed for balls from the US, a Customs Administration official said in a statement.
Photo: AP
However, because of its historical significance, Ohtani’s 50th home run ball would qualify for an exemption for valuable collectibles classified under section 9705.10 of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, the official said.
The Harmonized System is a code used by most countries as a basis for their customs tariffs and the collection of trade statistics. Section 9705.10 refers to “collections and collectors’ pieces of archeological, ethnographic or historical interest.”
In terms of international precedents, French customs authorities used section 9705.10 of the system to classify the importation of a pair of shoes that US basketball star LeBron James wore during the 2005-2006 National Basketball Association season, the agency said.
Photo grab from Goldin Auctions website
Despite the customs duty exemption, UC Capital would likely still have to pay the 5 percent sales tax on the purchase, equivalent to about NT$7 million (US$218,062), the Ministry of Finance said.
Officials are still looking into the possibility that the ball is covered under Article 49 of the Customs Act (關稅法) — which applies to items ranging from diplomatic gifts to relief supplies — in which case it would also be exempt from the sales tax, the ministry said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
RSS