April tax revenues up 5.9 percent in Taiwan

2015-05-13

Taiwan’s tax revenues rose 5.9 percent year on year to NT$102.6 billion (US$3.33 billion) in April, buoyed by increased collections in the areas of business income, commodity and consolidated income.

Commodity taxes were the standout performer. They shrugged off a drop of 4 percent in gas and petroleum collections to climb 13.9 percent from a year ago to NT$16.9 billion. This result also reflected a surge in automobile import taxes of 62.1 percent.

Consolidated income taxes and import duties picked up 14 percent and 5.5 percent to NT$20.4 billion and NT$9.7 billion, respectively. Despite business income collections falling NT$4.5 billion, the figure was NT$2.1 billion higher than that from last year.

Hsu Ray-lin, deputy director-general of the Ministry of Finance’s Department of Statistics, said May 11 that the overall performance indicates Taiwan’s economy is on track.

For the first four months of the year, tax revenues were NT$456 billion, up 5.8 percent to the highest level in 15 years. Business and commodity collections both reached record levels, up 4.7 percent to NT$101 billion and 10.3 percent to NT$59.5 billion, respectively.

But land value appreciation and securities transaction taxes dropped 8.6 percent to NT$33.2 billion and 10.9 percent to NT$25.6 billion, respectively, as investors remain bearish on the local real estate and stock markets.

Hsu said he expects more positive tax data going forward as the collection season begins in May.

“We are already 3.6 percent ahead of the target during the first four months. With pretax earnings from Taiwan’s listed companies set for solid growth this year, this trend bodes well for overall collections in 2015.”

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=230258&ctNode=413)