Housing price reform advocates yesterday rallied in front of Taipei City Hall and urged Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to push policies to reduce the gap between the the list value and market value of land, which is regularly published by local governments.
Demonstrators called on Ko, who they said had implemented many austerity measures since he assumed office 11 months ago, to focus on the big picture of government revenue.
Housing Movement (巢運) spokesman Peng Yang-kai (彭揚凱) said that the list value of land, determined by local governments, is much lower than the market value, which has allowed property investors and construction firms to stockpile homes by paying paltry land value taxes.
Peng said that land value taxes are one of the government’s main sources of revenue and called on Ko to raise land values by at least 37 percent — the overall land appreciation from 2013 to this year — in the next fiscal year in compliance with a central government decree.
Despite the order that land values determined by local governments should not be lower than the total land price increment over the previous three years, most local governments have failed to comply, he said.
The Taipei City Government would gain about NT$800 million (US$24.5 million) in annual revenue if it were to comply with the decree, which could be used to finance public housing projects, Peng said.
It would also pressure those with multiple properties to sell, releasing housing for sale, thereby increasing supply and easing pressure on Taipei’s housing and rental market, he said.
“If Taipei’s housing market drops by just 1 percentage point as a result of a tax reform, the money people will be able to save when buying a home would be more than enough for them to pay land value taxes for many years that follow,” Peng said.
Citing a spreadsheet published by the Ministry of Finance, Peng said that even if the land value is increased by 50 percent, about 83.7 percent of Taipei residents affected by a land value price increase would have to pay less than NT$1,000 annually, with the tax increase on one home averaging NT$380.
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