EU group urges gov’t to handle economy first

The government must provide clear direction and leadership in development policies for new industries, and make them practical and appealing to end-user, recommends another section of the same position papers.

“In the absence of such regulations, it would be difficult [for Taiwan] to compete on the global market,” said Scheller

Meanwhile, the ECCT also published this year a comparative study on Taiwan’s taxation climate and competitiveness compared with other Asian countries.

Overall, Taiwan’s tax environment is less attractive than that of rival economies in the Asia Pacific region, which puts Taiwan at a disadvantage when competing for investment from both domestic and multinational corporations, shows the survey conducted by KPMG Taiwan.

Higher tax burdens, unclear tax laws and inconsistent law interpretation, combined with the lack of a transparent government tax policy on the future direction for tax rates and tax incentives cause business to shy away from investing in Taiwan, says another section.

Compared with South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, the maximum personal income tax in Taiwan is 40 percent, while 35 percent, 16 percent, and 17 percent respectively in all three Asian countries.

“Koreans have no restrictions [on doing business] with China,” said Helmut Bolt, ECCT’s executive director, who added that they can flight directly from Seoul to China.

“Taiwan has a good economic growth, but it could have been 3 percent higher,” he went on, noting that many economic issues could be solved even though the status of Taiwan is still unresolved.

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