The luxury tax act in Taiwan

   In the end of the article “The eurozone crisis” we mentioned Taiwanese government has conducted the luxury tax act to address the issue of booming house price. In this article we will talk about the luxury tax act in Taiwan.

　在” The eurozone crisis”的文末，我們提及臺灣政府已經執行奢侈稅以處理房價飛漲的議題。本文中我們就來談談臺灣的奢侈稅法案。

   A luxury tax is a tax on luxury goods: products not considered essential. In order to narrow the widening gap in wealth and curbing real estate speculation, Taiwan's Ministry of Finance (MOF) proposed the “Statute for Special Commodity and Service Tax” act that focused on luxury goods in 2011. Luxury goods will be taxed 10%, and property not lived in by the owner and sold within 2 years of purchase will face a 10-15% tax. As Taiwanese government has tried to curb rampant speculative property transactions and the widening gap in wealth in past decade, BBC News called this act as “an unusual move”.

　奢侈稅是對奢侈品課徵的稅：也就是對非必需品的商品而言。為了縮小日益嚴重的貧富差距與遏止房地產投機，臺灣的財政部於2011年針對奢侈品提出「特種貨物及勞務稅」一案。奢侈品將會被課10%的稅、而不動產所有權人銷售持有期間在2年以內者，會面臨10-15%的稅。過去10年間，臺灣政府試圖遏制猖狂的房地產投機交易、以及縮小日益嚴重的貧富差距，英國BBC新聞稱此奢侈稅一案為「一個不尋常的舉動」。

   Taiwanese government claimed it would "only impact around 5% of the population at the top of the consumer pyramid.” By conducting this act, the government also believed it could add 15 billion (TWD) to the treasury, funds that would be allocated to social welfare programs.

　臺灣政府聲稱奢侈稅「僅會影響消費金字塔頂端，約5%的族群。」政府也相信藉由此法案的執行，能為國庫增加15億新臺幣的稅收，而這筆收入將用於社會福利計畫上。

   For the perspective from the society, property agents and sectors opposed this luxury tax act. However most Taiwanese embraced this act and had confident that it would help release their living stress, especially in the metropolitan area.

　從社會的觀點來看，房地產仲介與公司反對此奢侈稅法案。然而多數的臺灣人支持此法案、並有信心這能舒緩他們的生活壓力，尤其是都會地區。

   Addition to the problem of property speculation, the living wage is another serious problem that the Taiwanese society faces nowadays. Living wage is the minimum income that a workforce earned that is necessary to meet his/her basic needs in a period of time or for a lifetime. However, for workforce in Taiwan, especially in the capital Taipei, their wage has been underestimated. It is something like a fairy tale to own a property in metropolitan area. And it results in the phenomena of brain drain - another problem that Taiwanese society confronts inevitably.

　除了房地產投機的問題，生活薪資也是臺灣社會今日面臨的另一個嚴重的問題。生活薪資是勞動者所獲取能滿足一段時間或其一生的基本需要之最小報酬。然而，對於臺灣的勞動者而言，尤其是在首都臺北，他們的薪資被低估了。想要在都會地區擁有一件房地產堪謂天方夜譚。而這又導致了人才外流的現象－這是臺灣社會所面臨的另一個無可避免的問題。

Reference:

*財政部賦稅署 特種貨物及勞務稅(簡稱特種銷售稅)條例專區 (Taxation Agency, Ministry of Finance, R.O.C.)

*BBC News: Taiwan passes 'luxury' tax tocool property market

*Library Congress: Taiwan: Luxury TaxProposed by Ministry of Finance

*The China Post: Luxury tax fails to haltrising home prices: data

*財團法人國家政策研究基金會 臺灣課徵奢侈稅對房地產市場的影響 (NPF Research Report, National Policy Foundation)

The eurozone crisis

   Yesterday when talking about the innovativeenvironment of Finland, we mentioned that Finland experienced serious contraction during the eurozone crisis. Today we are going to introduce the eurozone crisis.

　昨天在談芬蘭的創新環境時，我們提及芬蘭在歐元區危機時經歷了嚴重的緊縮。今天我們就要來介紹歐元區危機。

   Eurozone crisis is the issue of excessive borrowing by ill-disciplined government. Private sectors take out loans with low interest easily. In southern European countries, such as Greece and Italy, the interest rates were even fallen when joining the eurozone.

　歐元區危機乃是紀律不彰的政府過度放款的結果。私人企業體能輕易地以低利率進行借貸。南歐國家像是希臘與義大利，當他們加入歐元區時，利率甚至還進行調降。

   The money flow of these countries is not balanced – input is smaller than output. After years of overspending, the debt level reached the point that the country was unable to bear. When there is a recession globally, the budget deficit is inevitably out of control.    

　這些國家的金錢流並不平衡－收入小於支出。經過數年的揮霍後，債務程度超出政府可以負擔的程度。當全球經濟蕭條時，此預算赤字便無可避面地失控了。

   However, Spain is in another situation. Spanish government has relative low debts. The origin of the crisis is its domestic house price. During 2004-2008, the house prices rose 44%. After this housing bubble burst, it has faced a circumstance of contraction and unemployment.

　然而，西班牙卻是另一種情形。西班牙政府的債務相對地低。國內房價乃是其危機的源頭。在2004-2008年間，房價漲了44%。房價泡沫化後，西班牙便面臨了緊縮與失業的處境。

   The problem of booming house price exists in Taiwan as well in recent years. Taiwanese government has carried out the luxury tax act since 2011 in order to cope with this issue.

　近年臺灣也存有房價飛漲的問題。臺灣政府已經於2011年起課徵奢侈稅，以處理此議題。

Reference:

*BBC News: Eurozone crisis explained 

*財團法人國家政策研究基金會 臺灣課徵奢侈稅對房地產市場的影響 (NPF Research Report, National Policy Foundation)