The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday.
The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said.
However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said.
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The number of spousal tax filings rebounded to about 2.98 million in 2023, accounting for 43.3 percent of all tax filings, down from 47.7 percent in 2014, the data showed.
This reflects the trend of people marrying later in life or remaining single, the department said.
The proportion of married people who filed as “separated” was less than 0.25 percent from 2014 to 2022, but rose to 0.36 percent in 2023, it said.
The highest proportions of “separated” filings were in Keelung, Taipei and New Taipei City with 0.53, 0.5 and 0.47 percent respectively, it said.
Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage on May 24, 2019, and the law was amended in 2023 to allow Taiwanese to marry a same-sex foreign spouse of any nationality, apart from Chinese, the department said.
Last year, the law was amended again to allow Taiwanese to register a marriage with a same-sex Chinese spouse, provided they first marry in a third country that recognizes same-sex marriage.
There were 2,625 people who reported having a same-sex spouse on their taxes in 2020, the year after same-sex marriage was legalized, the department said, adding that the number rose to 6,637 in 2023.
The proportion of married people reporting a same-sex spouse has risen from 0.09 to 0.22 percent, it added.
Hualien County had the highest proportion of same-sex spouses at 0.41 percent, followed by Taitung County at 0.35 percent, while the lowest proportions were in Changhua and Yunlin counties, both 0.09 percent, the department said.
Among the six special municipalities, the proportion ranged from 0.2 to 0.26 percent, it added.
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