The Tainan City Council on Tuesday passed a third reading of the Ordinance on Tainan Housing Tax (台南市房屋稅徵收率自治條例), raising the tax rates on homes not used as the owner’s primary residence to between 1.5 and 3.6 percent.
The tax is to go into effect on July 1.
Under the ordinance, the taxes of a single non-owner-occupied residential property would rise to 1.5 percent, while those of two or three non-owner-occupied homes would rise to 1.8 percent.
People owning four or five homes in addition to their registered residence would pay 2.4 percent on those properties, while those with six or more would pay 3.6 percent, according to the ordinance.
Public housing units, worker dormitories, parking lots, build-operate-transfer dormitories for public schools, jointly owned units, buildings — up to two — obtained through partially or wholly inheriting them, and other buildings in compliance with Article 17 of the Rental Housing Market Development and Regulation Act (租賃住宅市場發展及管理條例) are exempt, according to the ordinance.
Construction companies that have not sold units meant for housing within three years of first paying taxes for them would pay an additional 1.5 percent starting in the fourth year, and must pay an additional 2.4 percent per unsold unit after more than three years.
Families with three pieces of real estate, including properties owned by spouses and dependents, would still be taxed at a preferential rate of 1.2 percent, the Tainan City Government said.
The Tainan Finance and Local Tax Bureau said they estimate that 9,332 city residents, or 1.65 percent of all tax-paying residents, would be affected by the ordinance.
Rights advocates earlier in the month called on the government to introduce legislation to tax people hoarding homes to discourage such behavior. The Kaohsiung City Government subsequently introduced property hoarding taxes.
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