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.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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