FAVORING THE WEALTHY:The KMT’s and the DPP’s proposals to revise the securities transaction tax would effectively eliminate the capital gains tax, the SDP said

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 15, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

Proposals to cut or abolish the capital gains tax on stocks yesterday drew fire from the Green Party Taiwan and Social Democratic Party (SDP) alliance.

SDP Chairman Fan Yun (范雲) accused the nation’s two main parties — the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) — of a “fetishism” for tax cuts, claiming that their competing proposals to revise the securities transaction tax would effectively eliminate the capital gains tax.

“While using people to earn money is taxed at a relatively high rate and many office workers have to pay a tax rate of more than 15 percent, using money to make money is not taxed at all,” Fan said, adding that personal income taxes account for about 75 percent of the nation’s tax revenue, compared with an average of 45 percent for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries.     [FULL  STORY]