Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday rejected claims that the city government’s plan to reduce tax for residents with only one property, which they occupy, was “policy vote-buying.”
The tax on self-occupied property for city residents who only have one house would be reduced from 1 percent to 0.6 percent starting next year, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing Taipei City Government Deputy Secretary-General Chen Chih-ming (陳志銘).
It would be the second time the tax has been reduced in four years if the policy is implemented, and more than 200,000 households are expected to benefit from it when paying taxes in 2021, it reported.
Photo: Shen Pei-yao, Taipei Times
The property tax for residents with two to three houses could be increased to 1.2 percent, and to 3.6 percent for those with three or more houses, the newspaper reported.
The policy was criticized by Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City Councilor Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Councilor Wang Hong-wei (王鴻薇), who said that it was part of Ko’s strategy to win votes, as he might run for president next year.
When asked for comment yesterday, Ko said “policy vote-buying should be done before an election, not after an election.”
“The concept of reducing self-occupied property tax for people who only have one property is that ... residential property should be considered a basic necessity, but if you have three or four apartments to rent to other people, that is a different case,” he said.
“Apartments should be for living in, not for real-estate speculation,” Ko said, adding that the tax rate should be lower for self-occupied apartments and higher for additional apartments.
Not every policy is linked to election considerations, he said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
Taiwan next year plans to launch its first nationwide census on elderly people living independently to identify the estimated 700,000 seniors to strengthen community-based healthcare and long-term care services, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said on the sidelines of a healthcare seminar that the nation’s rapidly aging population and declining birthrate have made the issue of elderly people living alone increasingly pressing. The survey, to be jointly conducted by the MOHW and the Ministry of the Interior, aims to establish baseline data and better allocate care resources, he
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