Taiwan’s tax revenue surged last month, driven mainly by robust stock trading, even as property-related tax income continued to decline amid a cooling real-estate market, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Total tax revenue rose 28.6 percent from a year earlier to NT$298.9 billion (US$9.43 billion), supported largely by gains in the securities transaction tax revenue, business tax revenue and individual income tax revenue, Statistics Department Deputy Director Liu Shun-rong (劉訓蓉) said.
Revenue from the securities transaction tax — a key gauge of stock market turnover — totaled NT$53.5 billion in the month, soaring 1.4 times from a year earlier and marking the eighth consecutive month of growth.
Photo: An Rong Xu, Bloomberg
“Although Taiwan’s stock market weakened last month amid heightened tensions in the Middle East, trading activity remained brisk,” Liu said.
The benchmark TAIEX fell 3,691.5 points, or 10.4 percent, during the month, but average daily turnover increased 1.3 times to a record NT$921.4 billion, lifting securities transaction tax revenue to a new monthly high, she said.
For the first quarter, average daily turnover in local stock market rose 1.2 times to NT$915.3 billion, while securities transaction tax revenue climbed to about NT$123.7 billion, both setting record highs for the January-to-March period, the ministry said.
In contrast, property-related tax incomes declined as real-estate transactions remained subdued. Land value increment tax revenue fell 12.7 percent year-on-year to NT$6.1 billion last month, bringing first-quarter revenue to NT$16.6 billion, or a 15.7 percent annual drop, the ministry’s data showed.
Liu attributed the poor showing mainly to fewer property transactions and a decrease in large taxable cases.
Overall tax revenue in the first three months totaled NT$655.5 billion, up 18.3 percent from a year earlier and 13.3 percent above the budget target, Liu said.
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