People with an annual income of NT$620,000 (US$20,495) or less would be exempt from income tax when filing taxes in May next year, President William Lai (賴清德) said on Sunday, although a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator said such an exemption already existed.
The exemption would benefit 40 to 50 percent of the population, making this year the year with the “lightest tax burden” in the nation’s history, Lai said, adding that the majority of income tax would be paid by the top 1 percent of earners.
Democratic Progressive Party caucus secretary-general Chen Pei-yu (陳培瑜) yesterday said that the tax cuts still need to be discussed with the Ministry of Finance and require comprehensive supporting measures.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
However, the policy was met with doubt by the opposition party, with KMT Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) calling it empty political rhetoric, essentially using the existing system to deceive the public.
This year’s exemptions and deductions already include a personal exemption of NT$97,000, a standard deduction of NT$131,000, a salary deduction of NT$218,000 and a rental deduction of NT$180,000, totaling NT$626,000 per taxpayer, Hsu said.
Tax exemptions for those earning NT$50,000 per month have been in effect since the tax filings for last year, she said.
Taiwan’s tax structure is highly imbalanced, she said, adding that Ministry of Finance data showed that in 2023, 43.8 percent of the 6.883 million income tax filings were tax-exempt.
About 64,000 households, or 0.93 percent of all households nationwide, had net taxable income — total income minus exemptions and deductions — of more than NT$5 million, which accounted for NT$207.9 billion or 43.3 percent of income tax revenue, including dividend taxes, Hsu said.
Therefore, less than 1 percent of wealthy households paid more than 40 percent of total income tax revenue for 2023, Hsu said.
The data also reflected low incomes across the nation, she said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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