Tax revenue last year increased 7.9 percent from a year earlier to NT$3.73 trillion (US$112.62 billion), exceeding the government’s budget target by NT$497.2 billion, aided by hefty gains in securities transaction, personal income and business tax revenues, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The real surplus could reach NT$510 billion if late payments are added in, ministry statistician Liu Shun-rong (劉訓蓉) told an online media briefing, adding that it is the fourth consecutive year that revenues exceeded the official target.
Revenue from securities transaction taxes amounted to NT$288 billion, spiking 46 percent from one year earlier, as average daily turnover swelled 42.6 percent to NT$477.4 billion, Liu said.
Photo: Clare Cheng, Taipei Times
“The sharp rise came from fund flows to the local bourse to take advantage of the artificial intelligence-stock fever,” Liu said.
The TAIEX rallied 28.47 percent last year, second only to the US’ tech-heavy NASDAQ’s 29.81 percent gain, she said.
Corporate income tax revenue grew 3.6 percent to NT$1.12 trillion even though non-tech firms took a hard hit from a lingering global economic slowdown and overproduction from Chinese peers, Liu said, attributing the small increase to a relatively low base in 2023 due to profit declines and temporary tax relief measures.
Revenue from personal income tax expanded 8.9 percent to NT$822.2 billion, aided by higher cash dividends and capital gains from property transfers, she said.
The first half of last year saw a bullish housing market, propelled by favorable lending terms for first-home purchases. The trend boosted housing loans near a record-high in August, prompting the central bank to expand credit controls in September to pre-empt what it called a repeat of the housing bubble bust seen in the US in 2008.
Revenue from land value increase tax upon resale of real-
estate properties gained 5.3 percent to NT$99 billion, the ministry reported.
Business tax revenue expanded 6.4 percent to NT$608.9 billion, as domestic banks benefitted from interest rate hikes, while local suppliers of electronic components reaped a windfall from active investment in artificial intelligence by US cloud service providers, it said.
Additionally, revenue from entertainment tax grew more than two-fold, as Taiwanese packed major music concerts and sports events, Liu said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort