Tax revenue last month rose 11.3 percent from a year earlier to NT$239.1 billion (US$7.4 billion), lifted mainly by gains in corporate and personal income taxes, as well as stock exchange transactions, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Personal income tax revenue swelled 37.5 percent to NT$40.7 billion, as some firms distributed year-end bonuses last month, ministry statistics official Liu Shun-rong (劉訓蓉) said, adding that cash dividends and capital gains from property deals contributed to the increase.
There is a trend for firms and mutual funds to distribute cash dividends every quarter rather than annually, the ministry said.
Photo: Wu Chi-lun, Taipei Times
Corporate income tax revenue rose 5.7 percent to NT$9 billion as firms gradually emerged from an economic slowdown induced by inventory adjustments, sharp global inflation and monetary tightening, it said.
The improving macroenvironment lent support to the local bourse, which has seen capital inflows from mutual funds and foreign players seeking to take advantage of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, Liu said.
Taiwan is home to the world’s largest contract manufacturers of high-performance computing chips, high-capacity servers, storage, memory chips and other electronics.
Tax revenue from securities transactions in March spiked 65.6 percent to NT$29.1 billion, with average daily turnover soaring 88.4 percent from a year earlier to NT$551.7 billion, the ministry said, citing Taiwan Stock Exchange data.
The TAIEX climbed above the 20,000 points this month as dozens of local tech firms participate in supply of global AI infrastructure and services.
A positive wealth effect helped boost tax revenue from land value gains, which rose 13.8 percent to NT$7.8 billion, Liu said.
However, tax revenue from tariffs and sales of goods shrank 3.4 percent and 12.7 percent to NT$142 billion and NT$13 billion respectively, owing partly to a decline in vehicle imports, she said, adding that delayed recognition of vehicle sales contributed to the lackluster figures.
In the first quarter, the ministry collected NT$557.6 billion of tax revenue, a 14.5 percent increase from a year earlier and ahead of the government’s budget schedule by 16.4 percent, she added.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
RSS