The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday it “had reservations” about the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) proposals to raise taxes and to impose a capital gains tax.
KMT Legislator Tseng Chu-wei (曾巨威) said that imposing a capital gains tax “is a road Taiwan must take,” while Control Yuan President Wang Chien-hsien (王建煊) said he would like to have been finance minister so that he could implement a series of measures to raise taxes.
“President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) attitude, rather than who the finance minister is, is the most important factor in advancing tax reforms,” DPP Legislator and party caucus chief secretary Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) told a press conference.
Photo: CNA
“We would like to remind President Ma that raising taxes alone will not resolve the issue of the national debt. Reducing government inefficiency is important as well,” Chen said.
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said imposing a capital gains tax was the right direction to go, as “that income is considered easy money when compared with that of blue-collar workers.”
However, the details and categories have to be worked out by the government before further discussions on the issue can take place, Huang said.
The government should levy a wealth tax on the top 5 percent of earners, instead of imposing capital gains tax on securities transactions, Taiwan Solidarity Union whip Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) said.
Meanwhile, Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) said that taxation and finance were not necessarily the same, adding that the job of finance minister entailed not only raising or cutting taxes, but also considering the government’s overall financial health, while balancing income and expenditure.
Accompanied by Executive Yuan Secretary-General Lin Yi-shih (林益世), Minister-Without-Portfolio Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) and Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), Sean Chen inspected post-Morakot reconstruction areas and asked about job opportunities, industry and the sustainability of the environment in post-disaster areas.
Replying to questions by reporters on raising taxes, including the possibility of including a capital gains tax, Sean Chen said that there are a lot of problems with the taxation system, which needs to be reformed.
The overall effects of taxation, as well as the overhead costs of collecting taxes need to be reviewed, the premier said, adding that as implementing a capital gains tax is not seen as a consensus issue, it would depend on the finance minister’s report.
With translation by Jake Chung, staff writer
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS