The Pan-Purple Alliance yesterday vowed to mobilize taxpayers to defy tax laws if the government fails to adjust what they called a taxation system that serves the interests of large corporations.
"People have the right to refuse an unfair taxation system if the government continues to allow big companies to pay less taxes than the general public," said Chien Hsi-chieh, convener of the Pan-Purple Alliance and a former Democratic Progressive Party legislator. "We do not rule out the possibility of launching a campaign to encourage the public to adopt a non-violent, uncooperative measure to refuse paying taxes next year."
If this should happen, Chien said the government would be doomed and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) would be forced to step down before his term expires in 2008.
According to Chien, the government's taxation system has many loopholes. He singled out the proposed minimum tax scheme, which has been approved by the Executive Yuan and is awaiting the legislature's review and final approval.
The minimum tax scheme does not tax high-income individuals on their overseas income, which Chien said would encourage the wealthy to transfer their money overseas.
The scheme also does not apply to foreign investment in local stock markets, which Chien said would encourage local buyers to establish paper companies abroad to dodge the taxes.
In addition, the proposed progressive tax rates for the minimum corporate tax scheme -- 7.5 percent, 8.5 percent and 10 percent -- cater to the needs of conglomerates, making them the biggest winners, Chien said.
"What kind of tax reform is this?" Chien asked. "It only shows that the scheme is a hoax and that worse-off taxpayers like you and me are being exploited by the reform scheme, which is manipulated by big corporations and tolerated by the government."
Echoing Chien's opinions, Jason Huang (
Earnings from stock transactions should also be levied to make the taxation system fairer, Huang said.
Gee Keh-shang (葛克昌), a law professor at National Taiwan University, said that there are three kinds of taxpayers in Taiwan: those who do not enjoy any taxation privileges, those who enjoy a certain degree of taxation privileges, and those entitled to total taxation exemptions.
"We are not asking for the taxation system to be perfect, but the government should not create a new category giving big companies more taxation privileges," Gee said.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but