The Ministry of Finance will launch a task force next month to study whether tax reform can help balance the budget and reduce Taiwan’s growing wealth gap, incoming MOF Minister Christina Y. Liu said Feb. 3.
“The task force will map out different ways to fulfill President Ma’s promise of creating a just society and ensuring that the nation’s debt does not get out of control,” said Liu, after meeting with ROC President Ma Ying-jeou.
Liu, the current minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, will assume her new post Feb. 6.
According to ROC law, the gross national debt cannot exceed 40 percent of the average gross domestic product of the preceding three years. The figure stood at 34.67 percent as of August 2011, according to MOF figures.
One way to help balance the budget would be to institute a windfall tax, said Liu, who explained that in many other nations sudden and unexpected sources of income, from games of chance for example, are taxed more heavily than other types of earnings.
“We will draw on the experience of other countries and consider adjusting tax rates and our classification system,” she said.
Liu denied reports that she was in favor of imposing a capital gains tax, saying that such a move could threaten stock market growth.
“We should keep in mind that tax reform does not mean taxing the rich,” she said. “Instead, we should try to increase our total national wealth, so that all of the society benefits.”
“Before we introduce a new measure, we will make sure that the general public is strongly in favor of it,” she added. (HZW)
Write to Aaron Hsu at pj1210meister@mail.gio.gov.tw