The Executive Yuan yesterday passed a set of legislative amendments canceling tax exemptions for people serving in the military as well as elementary and high school faculty and staff members. At the same time, however, the Executive Yuan also agreed to demands from the Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Education asking for "salary subsidies" for service members and education-sector workers. The defense ministry wants salary hikes worth an annual NT$5 billion, while the education ministry is seeking an additional NT$10 billion in its budget. Canceling the tax exemptions will increase the government's tax revenues by NT$13 billion, according to estimates by the Ministry of Finance. Approving the ministries' subsidy requests would cost NT$15 billion. Doesn't sound like a good deal for the Executive Yuan.
The tax exemptions for service members and education-sector workers have been in place for several decades. They used to be seen as political tools, but recent changes in Taiwan's political environment have made it impossible to control and use service members and teachers as election pawns. Public awareness of fair taxation is also rising. Public opinion polls have consistently shown more than 80 percent of respondents support ending these exemptions, even a majority of service people and teachers.
But cancelling the exemptions should not be linked to the two ministries' requests for subsidies. Service people and education-sector workers already enjoy higher salaries than most civil servants. The erstwhile reasons for tax exemptions -- low salaries -- no longer exists. According to Central Personnel Administration statistics, the monthly salary of a lieutenant general in the army is NT$3,000 more than an equivalent "Level 13" official in the civil service. Elementary and high school teachers who have taught for 15 years or more get NT$5,000 more per month than other civil servants with the same length of service.
Government finances are in dire straits, with accumulated debts of more than NT$3 trillion. The government's debt load continues to increase each year. The Executive Yuan should not rush to let go of any opportunity to increase tax revenues.
The Cabinet is now asking its agencies not to increase spending unless they can come up with a comparable increase in income. And yet it appears willing to give up the additional tax revenues it would gain from eliminating the exemptions.
Teachers' and servicemembers' organizations are asking for increases in specific areas of their salary structures. The military is asking for more risk compensation and extra pay for being assigned to offshore islands. The education sector wants more extra pay for counseling and guidance work. While adjustments may be needed in some areas, such changes should be determined by the Central Personnel Administration, not linked to tax issues.
The tax exemptions for service people and education-sector workers have long been a headache for the government. The government is facing a situation and conditions that are very different from the past. It should decisively cancel unfair tax exemptions or incentives and delink salary hikes and subsidies from such cancelations.
China has successfully held its Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, with 53 of 55 countries from the African Union (AU) participating. The two countries that did not participate were Eswatini and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which have no diplomatic relations with China. Twenty-four leaders were reported to have participated. Despite African countries complaining about summit fatigue, with recent summits held with Russia, Italy, South Korea, the US and Indonesia, as well as Japan next month, they still turned up in large numbers in Beijing. China’s ability to attract most of the African leaders to a summit demonstrates that it is still being
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Thursday was handcuffed and escorted by police to the Taipei Detention Center, after the Taipei District Court ordered that he be detained and held incommunicado for suspected corruption during his tenure as Taipei mayor. The ruling reversed an earlier decision by the same court on Monday last week that ordered Ko’s release without bail. That decision was appealed by prosecutors on Wednesday, leading the High Court to conclude that Ko had been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and it ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Video clips
The Russian city of Vladivostok lies approximately 45km from the Sino-Russian border on the Sea of Japan. The area was not always Russian territory: It was once the site of a Chinese settlement. The settlement would later be known as Yongmingcheng (永明城), the “city of eternal light,” during the Yuan Dynasty. That light was extinguished in 1858 when a large area of land was ceded by the Qing Dynasty to the Russian Empire with the signing of the Treaty of Aigun. The People’s Republic of China founded by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never ruled Taiwan. Taiwan was governed by the
The Japanese-language Nikkei Shimbun on Friday published a full-page story calling for Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) leadership hopefuls to be aware of and to prepare for a potential crisis in the Taiwan Strait. The candidates of the LDP leadership race must have a “vision” in case of a Chinese invasion in Taiwan, the article said, adding that whether the prospective president of the LDP and the future prime minister of Japan have the ability to lead the public and private sectors under this circumstance would be examined in the coming election. The “2027 Theory” of a Taiwan contingency is becoming increasingly
RSS