《TAIPEI TIMES》 Corporate income, securities drive tax revenue expansion

By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

Tax revenue last month expanded 55.9 percent from a year earlier to NT$343.2 billion （US$12.22 billion）, thanks to hefty gains in corporate income and securities transaction taxes, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.

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A COVID-19 outbreak disrupted the timing of income tax filings and accounted for the steep differences in year-on-year comparisons, Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Chen Yu-feng （陳玉豐） told an online news conference.

Many companies postponed or were spared from filing income taxes last year as the world struggled amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted countries to close borders and implement draconian lockdowns, Chen said.

The tax respite helped lower the comparison bar last year and accounted for a 51.6 percent spike in corporate income taxes to NT$203.4 billion, she said, adding that many companies reported prodigious profit gains.

Taiwan’s tech firms have continued to benefit from strong demand for devices for study and working at home trends, while business at non-tech firms has picked up.

Securities transactions remained a main tax revenue driver, more than doubling to NT$27 billion, the second-highest rise in history, while average daily market turnover more than doubled to NT$544 billion, the ministry said.

By contrast, land increment tax revenue, a critical gauge of the property market, grew 0.2 percent to NT$9.3 billion, although the number of taxable cases rose 13.3 percent to 57,243, Chen said.

She declined to comment on whether the lackluster showing had anything to do with property tax hikes this month.

For the first six months of this year, tax revenue totaled NT$1.23 trillion, up 27.7 percent from the same period last year and outpacing the budget schedule by 2 percentage points, the ministry said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES