TAIPEI: The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Finance plan to join hands and adjust the calculation mechanism for housing and land taxes to make them more accurate and reasonable with the aid of real-price transaction data.
The move could lead to a steep increase in land and house taxes currently based on government-assessed values, which are much lower than market rates.
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“The two ministries will create a platform for discussions on the issue,” a finance ministry official said by telephone yesterday,
Neither ministry would elaborate on the adjustments, as drastic tax hikes are bound to rile the public with more than 80 percent of Taiwanese owning homes.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Hua Ching-chun met with his counterpart at the finance ministry, Wu Tzu-hsin, on Wednesday.
Hua, an academic-turned politician and longtime critic of soaring housing prices in Taiwan, said the government has accumulated massive property transaction data that could help in the calculation of taxes.
With help from property evaluation professionals, the government can arrive at new bases for property taxes that can better achieve the goal of land and housing justice, the finance ministry quoted Hua as saying in a statement.
Wu agreed that property evaluation plays an important part in drawing up a tax formula.
The two ministries are to set up a discussion panel and invite property and tax experts, academics and local government officials to contribute their opinions.
Local governments plan to raise assessed values for properties in their jurisdictions to help boost coffers and finance infrastructure.
The proposals will increase real-estate holding costs and rub further salt in the wounds of the sluggish market, property analysts said.
