SOCIETY
Tax change could aid 2.3m
About 2.3 million households could benefit from an upward adjustment of the basic living expense per person this year, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said on Friday. The Taxpayer Rights Protection Act (納稅者權利保護法) stipulates that people should not be taxed on the amount they need to cover basic expenses, which is set at 60 percent of the preceding year’s median disposable per capita income. The latest survey of family income released on Friday by the DGBAS showed that median disposable income was NT$337,000 per person last year, up NT$11,000 from 2021. Based on that figure, the basic living expense for this year, which applies to taxpayers and their dependents, would be NT$202,000, which is NT$6,000 more than it was last year. When basic living expenses exceed the combined personal tax exemption, standard deduction and special deductions, the difference can be deducted from the taxpayer’s gross income. For a family of four, the extra NT$24,000 cushion provided by the higher basic living expense standard would provide income tax savings of NT$1,200 at a 5 percent tax rate and NT$2,880 at a 12 percent tax rate.
SOCIETY
Festival to limit Taipei traffic
Traffic controls are to be imposed around Taipei’s Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area today, the final day of the Taipei Summer Festival, which is to culminate in an eight-minute fireworks display, the city’s police department said yesterday. Traffic controls are to be imposed across several roads leading to and around the Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕碼頭) area from 6pm to 9:30pm, it said. The sections closed to vehicles would include Liangzhou Street, Yanping N Road, Changan W Road, Tacheng Street and Zhengshou Road, it said. Traffic is to be blocked at nine entry points, including the intersection of Minsheng W Road and Chongqing N Road, as well as the intersection of Nanjing W Road and Chongqing N Road, it said. At the same time, two-way traffic controls are to be implemented on a section of the elevated Huanhe Expressway between Minzu W Road and Zhongxiao Bridge. From 7:30pm to 9pm, crowd controls would be imposed for sidewalks on Zhongxiao Bridge and Taipei Bridge, police said. Riverside parking lots from Gates No. 3 to No. 5 near Dadaocheng would remain closed to vehicles throughout the day. The closing fireworks display for the festival is to start at 8:35pm.
CRIME
Man investigated for killing
A man is being investigated for homicide after allegedly slitting his girlfriend’s throat with a fruit knife while sitting behind her on a scooter she was driving, Kaohsiung police said yesterday. The incident happened while the couple, both from Vietnam, were traveling on Chenggong Road in the city’s Gangshan District (岡山) on Tuesday night, police told a news conference. The man then stabbed himself with the knife, after which the pair fell to the ground, police said, adding that the knife was found at the scene. The woman was pronounced dead at a local hospital, while the man was unconscious, police said. The suspect regained consciousness yesterday, and is being investigated by the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office. Based on video footage from nearby surveillance cameras, the incident might have been as a result of a dispute between the couple, police said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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