Tax revenue last year gained 5.7 percent from 2022 to a record NT$3.43 trillion (US$110.28 billion), beating the government budget target by 11.8 percent, or NT$361.7 billion in excess tax revenue, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said yesterday.
The actual excess could rise to a range of NT$380 billion to NT$391 billion after the arrival of delayed tax revenue, ministry statistics official Liang Kuan-hsuan (梁冠璇) said.
The excess tax revenue came because the ministry had no way of foreseeing five interest rate hikes by the central bank to curb inflation that helped inflate
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
business tax revenue to NT$560.9 billion, Liang said
Furthermore, the ministry could not have predicted the rallies in local tech shares that raised full-year securities transaction tax revenue by 12.4 percent to NT$197.3 billion, the second-highest in history, she said.
Liang attributed the rallies to the world’s keen interest in artificial intelligence equipment and solutions, which benefit local firms and their global supply chains.
Personal income tax revenue represented another bright spot with a 14.4 percent advance to NT$749.7 billion, thanks to upward wage and interest rate adjustments among other things, Liang said.
Altogether, revenues from the gifts and inheritances tax, sales tax, corporate income tax, entertainment tax, deed tax and house tax more than met the budget target, she added.
Only revenue from liquor and tobacco taxes as well as land value increment tax lagged behind the ministry’s projection, Liang said, adding that property transactions have since July last year staged a rebound.
The government is looking at a slowdown in tax revenue this year as some manufacturing sectors last year took a hit from sharp inflation, monetary tightening and geopolitical tensions, unfavorable factors that would continue to have an impact, Liang said.
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