Owners of about 3,000 luxury houses or apartments in Taipei City will pay additional housing tax based on government-assessed property valuations starting next month, city officials said.
The tax will be levied on 2,935 households in 139 buildings, which the public has dubbed the “luxury home” tax.
The Taipei Revenue Service originally stipulated that upscale apartments and detached homes in expensive locations with luxurious facades, good views and tight security would be subject to the additional tax.
However, after the original plan drew mixed reactions for not considering property market values and house sizes, the agency added three more criteria. The three new criteria are that the extra tax will be imposed on properties with a total value of at least NT$80 million (US$2.7 million), with a value of at least NT$1 million per ping (3.3 square meters) and on houses or apartments of over 80 pings. Additionally, all units of buildings in which more than 70 percent of households fall in the first two categories are also subject to the tax. The revised criteria ruled out 7,500 houses or apartments in 261 buildings that would have been subject to the additional tax under the original proposal.
In terms of the number of upscale homes in Taipei that will be affected by the levy, Xinyi District (信義) tops the list with 1,358 households in 60 buildings, followed by Daan District (大安) (510 households) and Zhongshan District (中山) (454 households), according to the revenue agency.
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