Wed, Nov 02, 2016 page4

• Recalculation of Taipei land values causes tax hike

  • By Sean Lin / Staff reporter
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  A land tax increase was implemented in Taipei yesterday to reflect a rise in land values calculated by the Taipei City Government, with officials saying that the tax hike would affect about 56 percent of households in the city.

  With local governments across the nation beginning to collect land taxes yesterday, Taipei held a news conference to explain this year’s higher rates.

  Although the degree of Taipei’s land tax increase is the smallest among the six special municipalities, higher land costs in the city mean that landowners would need to pay more than those in other municipalities, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said.

  

  Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, left, explains a land tax increase implemented by the city government at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

  The increase in land taxes levied on 70 percent of households would mean bills would be higher by about NT$1,000, Ko said.

  Local governments publish land values in their jurisdictions every three years, which might not reflect changes in land values in a timely manner, he said.

  He called for changing the rules governing the publication of land value increases, so that the scope of appreciation can be made public annually, adding that this would flatten the curve of tax increases.

  “If land taxes could be adjusted every year, residents would not be taken by surprise by the rate of increase when they receive their tax forms,” Ko said.

  Ko called on the central government to integrate three factors in land evaluation — land appreciation, land value, and market prices — by proposing amendments to laws governing land value, thereby creating a unified method for calculating land costs and easing the workload on local governments.

  Land appreciation governs land appreciation taxes, while land values and market prices respectively determine how much people should pay for their land and how much the government should compensate landowners in the event of land expropriations, he said.

  As the three methods each have a different purpose, they are confusing not only to landowners, but also to mayors, he said.

  “However, as a legal amendment cannot be completed overnight, the best we can do now is to protect people against steep land taxes after a tax increase is announced,” he said.

  Taipei Department of Land Administration Commissioner Lee Te-chuan (李得全) said that only 4 percent of landowners are corporations or residents who own more than one plot of land, but these taxpayers contribute 53.5 percent of the city’s total land tax revenue, compared with 8 percent paid by ordinary households.

  The tax rate for households is 2 percent, while the rates for corporations or residents owning numerous plots of land range from 10 to 55 percent, he said.
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