Thousands of people wearing yellow vests yesterday rallied in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei to demand that the government reform tax laws and return what they say were unfairly levied taxes.
The tax system is “unfair and lacks transparency,” said the Tax and Legal Reform League, which organized the rally.
To improve the system, the government should convene a national congress to discuss tax reform and establish a committee to help people who have been erroneously taxed, it said in a statement.
Photo courtesy of the Tax and Legal Reform League
The system makes it extremely difficult for victims of erroneous or illegal taxation to recover their money, said Wu Ching-chin (吳景欽), an associate professor in Aletheia University’s Department of Law and one of the league’s founding members.
When someone files an administrative appeal over illegal or erroneous taxation, they still have to pay half of the taxes levied while the case is ongoing, he said.
“This means that if you have been illegally asked to pay NT$10 million [US$324,538], you would have to pay NT$5 million first,” Wu said.
Moreover, the appeal process usually takes 10 years and the chance of winning such a case is only 6 percent, he added.
“Even if you win, the court ruling is useless,” Wu said, adding that the National Taxation Bureau could continue to levy the tax deemed illegal by the court due to a legislative flaw that grants it the authority to “recheck” its own tax decisions.
Tax bureaus continue to levy illegal and erroneous taxes, because admitting mistakes would prevent officials from receiving performance-based bonuses, he said, adding that tax bureaus have more performance-based bonuses than any other government agency.
“To lessen people’s pain, the bureau should stop requiring the same tax to be paid once an administrative court has ruled it to be illegal,” Wu said.
The unfair tax system not only causes unnecessary suffering, but pushes foreign investors away, he said.
The rally is “people’s protest against this undemocratic system and demand for a better life,” he added.
League members began protesting unfair taxes in yellow vests on Dec. 18, 2016, well before the “yellow vest” protests began in France, said another founding member of the league, Chen Chih-lung (陳志龍), a retired National Taiwan University law professor.
“As with the French ‘yellow vest’ protesters, we are against government bullying. We are opposed to the government doing whatever it wants, believing it is the boss,” he said.
“This is a human rights movement,” Chen said, adding that similar protests are happening in Belgium and Hungary.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
RSS