The New Power Party (NPP) is to promote a progressive property tax to control home prices, caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said yesterday.
According to draft amendments to the House Tax Act (房屋稅條例) proposed by the NPP, owners of more than three residential properties would face levies that increase with the number they own.
Fourth and fifth properties would be taxed an additional 2.4 to 3.6 percent of each property’s value, Huang said.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
For the sixth and seventh, the additional rate would be 3.6 percent to 4.8 percent, while for the eighth and ninth it would be 4.8 percent to 6 percent, he said.
For the tenth and onward, each would be taxed an additional 10 percent, he said.
Meanwhile, the housing tax for owners of only one residential property would be reduced from 1.2 percent to 1 percent, he said.
Owners of more than three residential properties can have the additional tax rates cut in half if they rent out the properties, he said.
The draft amendments were designed to slow the rise of property values and to put more homes on the market, he said.
The housing price-to-income ratio is nine, while the reasonable range is three to five, he said.
“A progressive property tax would reinvigorate the housing market,” Huang said, adding that social housing and subsidies for renters initiatives are not enough.
Social Housing Advocacy Consortium chairman Peng Yang-kae (彭揚凱) said that a progressive property tax would encourage owners of multiple houses to put some back on the market.
The amendments would only affect owners of four or more residential properties, or 5 percent of the population, he said.
The party would also promote legislation requiring the disclosure of properties’ selling prices to improve transparency in the housing market, NPP think tank deputy chief executive officer Peng Sheng-shao (彭盛韶) said.
Both will be promoted as the party’s priority bills in the new legislative session beginning today, Peng said.
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