TAIPEI: Contract chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) and contract electronics maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (鴻海) accounted for about 16 percent of the business income tax revenue collected by the government in 2016, according to data obtained by CNA.
The statistics show that TSMC, the world’s largest pure wafer foundry operator, paid more than NT$30 billion (US$997 million) in business income tax for 2016 after the tax filing season ended in May.
It was the first time a single business entity operating in Taiwan had paid more than NT$30 billion in business income tax, the data indicates.
TSMC’s tax payment ranked the highest among all enterprises operating in Taiwan after the chip maker recorded its highest-ever net income of NT$334.25 billion in net profit for 2016, up 9 percent from a year earlier, on the back of strong global demand for mobile devices.
The improved bottom line shows that TSMC took about NT$900 million per day in 2016 on average to boost its earnings per share (EPS) to NT$12.89 for the year, compared with NT$11.82 in EPS recorded a year earlier. TSMC’s tax payment for 2016 hit a new high in the company’s history as the company remained the most profitable enterprise in Taiwan in terms of net profit, according to data compiled by CNA.
For its part, Hon Hai, an assembler of iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc., paid about NT$10 billion in business income tax in 2016, the second-highest level in tax payments among the business entities operating in Taiwan, the data shows.
Hon Hai posted NT$148.66 billion in net profit for 2016, up from NT$146.87 billion in 2015, with EPS at NT$8.60, compared with NT$8.45 recorded a year earlier.
Market analysts said that the significant contribution made by TSMC and Hon Hai, two of the most important suppliers to Apple, shows that the bellwether electronics sector remained a driver to the country’s economic growth last year.
The data shows that the government collected a total of NT$296.2 billion in business income tax for 2016 after almost 900,000 companies filed their taxes in May.
Income tax revenue collected by the Taxation Bureau of the Northern Area of the Ministry of Finance totaled NT$118 billion, accounting for about 38 percent of the total, since TSMC and Hon Hai are supervised by that taxation bureau, the data shows.
