Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday expressed support for further cuts to the business income tax rate, a comment expected to help garner consensus among lawmakers across party lines to enact the draft on the promotion of innovative industries (產業創新條例).
When approached by reporters yesterday for comment on the draft, Wu said that despite a possible reduction in tax revenue, the cut would enhance the attractiveness of the country to foreign capital, speed up investment and create more jobs, thus increasing eventual tax revenues.
Without giving much detail, Wu cited the slash in estate and gift tax rate from 50 percent to 10 percent as an example of tax cuts working to help the government, saying that it brought more benefits than losses in tax revenue.
While the government initially wanted to keep the rate at 20 percent, the tax cut proposal, presented by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers, suggested cutting the business income tax rate to 17.5 percent. The proposal has since become one of the causes of deadlock over the draft in the legislature.
While Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) had previously said the DPP caucus’ proposal would result in a loss of NT$40.3 billion (US$1.2 billion) in annual tax revenue, the government has nevertheless indicated a change in its position, with Executive Yuan Secretary-General Lin Join-sane (林中森) proposing the possibility of lowering the rate to 17 percent.
Chinese Nationalist Party Legislative caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) said yesterday the party caucus would concretize its position after making a comparison of the costs and benefits of setting the tax rate at 20 percent, 18 percent and 17 percent.
Last year, the business income tax rate was lowered from 25 percent to 20 percent, leading to an approximate loss of NT$80.8 billion in tax revenues.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
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