TAIPEI: The national treasury collected NT$117.9 billion (US$3.6 billion) in tax revenues last month, a 9.1 percent increase from a year earlier, thanks to an income levy on cash dividends received by foreign investors, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Personal income tax revenues totaled NT$63.2 billion last month, with foreign investors paying NT$42.3 billion, or 20 percent of their overall cash dividends distributed by local companies from profits earned last year, the ministry said.
That meant foreign investors gained NT$211.5 billion last month alone from holding shares in local companies that posted strong earnings last year, the ministry said.
Unlike foreigners, Taiwanese investors can wait until May next year to declare their income for this year.
More companies will distribute cash and stock dividends for the rest of this year, the ministry said.
The ministry expects to collect more revenues from income taxes from cash dividends this year, compared with NT$92.5 billion last year, which was a profitable year for most Taiwanese firms, especially those in the technology sector.
The current economic slowdown would not affect corporate and individual income taxes until next year, the ministry said.
For the first eight months of the year, tax revenues rose to a record-high NT$417.2 billion, an increase of 9 percent from the same period last year and 9.2 percent higher than the ministry’s target.
The strong performance came even though revenue from securities transaction taxes dropped 7.6 percent year-on-year last month, the ministry said, as global and local equity market turbulence sidelined most investors.
Revenue from property taxes gained 0.9 percent to NT$7.5 billion last month from a year earlier, while the number of real-estate transactions weakened 10.6 percent year-on-year, the ministry said, attributing the gap to delayed property tax payments.
