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.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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