Tax revenue last month fell 2.8 percent year-on-year to NT$232.4 billion (US$7.15 billion), as fears of potential US tariffs on all imports spooked investors around the world and dampened securities trading in Taiwan, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Tax revenue from securities transactions posted the steepest decline among all major categories, plunging 24.6 percent — or NT$7.2 billion — to NT$21.9 billion, the lowest in 26 months, the ministry’s monthly report showed.
Average daily turnover of the local stock market fell to NT$400.4 billion, down 27.4 percent from a year earlier and hitting the lowest in 14 months, it added.
Photo: CNA
The drop followed US President Donald Trump’s hawkish and unpredictable tariff talks, which unsettled global financial markets and drove investors to the sidelines, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, personal income tax revenue declined 14.1 percent year-on-year to NT$34.9 billion, which the ministry attributed to an unfavorable comparison base due to the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday.
This year, the holiday fell mainly in January, while last year it occurred entirely in February — delaying some year-end bonuses and associated tax withholdings to March, the ministry said.
However, not all tax categories recorded declines.
Business tax revenue rose 5.7 percent to NT$110.9 billion, buoyed by steady domestic demand and robust exports, as companies front-loaded shipments amid Trump’s tariff threat, it added.
In the first quarter of this year, total tax revenue amounted to NT$554 billion, down 0.6 percent from the same period last year and slightly below the ministry’s budget target, the report said.
The most significant declines were in securities transaction tax, business tax and commodity tax revenues, which fell NT$5.2 billion, NT$4.3 billion and NT$3.3 billion respectively, compared with the January-to-March period last year, the ministry said
The declines were partially offset by a NT$12.8 billion increase in personal income tax revenue, driven by wage growth and higher cash dividends distributed by listed firms, it said.
STEEP DECLINE: Yesterday’s drop was the third-steepest in its history, the steepest being Monday’s drop in the wake of the tariff announcement on Wednesday last week Taiwanese stocks continued their heavy sell-off yesterday, as concerns over US tariffs and unwinding of leveraged bets weighed on the market. The benchmark TAIEX plunged 1,068.19 points, or 5.79 percent, to 17,391.76, notching the biggest drop among Asian peers as it hit a 15-month low. The decline came even after the government on late Tuesday authorized the NT$500 billion (US$15.2 billion) National Stabilization Fund (國安基金) to step in to buoy the market amid investors’ worries over tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. Yesterday’s decline was the third-steepest in its history, trailing only the declines of 2,065.87 points on Monday and
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