Taipei identifies three areas to crack down on tax evasion
Taiwan’s Ministry of Finance is focusing on real estate as a key area of taxation, writes our sister paper Commercial Times.
From August, the ministry will strive to eliminate cases where properties are sold separately to individuals from a parcel of land that belongs to a single person, understood to be a common way to avoid paying higher taxes.
In addition, internet business are also evading large amounts of taxes. The ministry will also focus on people who extract money from the tourism industry, cosmetic procedures and medical equipment.
A ministry spokesman said tax evasion in real estate is the result of legal loopholes and it is also the source of unfair renting to people in need. No matter what the kind of real estate transaction, a tax is imposed, said the spokesman, but since the ministry is short of manpower it finds it hard to conduct checks on people who buy or sell more than six units at a time.
The ministry will also focus on cosmetic procedures because some operators do not provide a receipt with the accurate amount of money spent on expensive medical equipment. Taipei city reportedly could have made an extra NT$10 million (US$333,500) in taxes if cosmetic surgery clinics were honest in declaring their receipts.
Furthermore, with an increasing number of mainland Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan, industries that depend on them are also trying to dodge taxes by any means. The ministry will post investigators to popular sites for Chinese tourists to block attempts to evade tax, the spokesman said.
