The National Tax Administration of Taipei (
KMT legislator Yang Chi-hsiung (
According to the newspaper report, the tax administration will investigate Soong's accounts, assets, tax records, as well as his flow of money with interested parties, including his parents.
High-ranking officials of the Ministry of Finance later confirmed the presidential candidate and his wife are both on the investigation list.
Finance minister Paul Chiu (
The tax administration will first request relevant banks and securities firms to offer documents about Soong Chen-yuan's financial dealings over the past seven years, said officials of the administration.
If anything unusual is found, the administration will summon the persons involved -- such as Soong Chen-yuan and the unidentified "elder" that James Soong has called the source of the funds -- to testify, the paper said.
As current tax laws stipulate that probes into tax evasion must be completed within seven years of the event, the administration has decided to speed up the investigation. The administration, however, stressed that the investigation is a matter of taxation, and it has nothing to do with politics.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
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