To increase incentives for landlords to cooperate, the Ministry established the Public Welfare Landlord Qualification and Review Guidelines according to Paragraph 3, Article 3 of the Housing Act. The guidelines stipulate that any homeowner that leases their housing to tenants that receive rent subsidy may qualify as a public welfare landlord, and is eligible for individual income tax exemption of up to NT$10,000 per house each month; house tax levied at the primary residential land tax rate of 1.2%; and land value tax levied at the primary residential land tax rate of 0.2%. So far, 5 special municipalities and 12 counties (cities) have agreed to implement the guidelines.
Survey results of the number of public welfare landlord tax reduction households in 2017 and 2018 are as follows:
I. House tax
- 2017: 16,619 households according to tax registration numbers. Taoyuan City came in first at 5,358 households, followed by New Taipei City at 3,308 households, and the third, Taichung City at 2,356 households. In 2017, areas with tax reduction households included 6 special municipalities and 10 counties (cities), i.e., Changhua County, Nantou County, Yunlin County, Chiayi County, Pingtung County, Taitung County, Hualien County, Keelung City, Hsinchu City, and Chiayi City.
- 2018: 43,161 households according to tax registration numbers. New Taipei City came in first at 10,365 households, followed by Taoyuan City at 9,357 households, and the third, Taichung City at 8,502 households. In 2018, areas with tax reduction households included 6 special municipalities and 14 counties (cities). The only areas without tax reduction households were Kinmen County and Lienchiang County.
- The reasons for the discrepancy in the number of tax reduction households between 2017 and 2018 are as follows:
- The taxable period for house tax spans from July 1 of the previous year to June 30 of the current year. For instance, the 2017 taxable period lasted from July 1, 2016, to Jun 30, 2017. According to Article 5 of the House Tax Act, the Ministry of Finance has issued standards for defining houses used for residential purposes by owners and leased for public welfare purposes by a landlord. These standards were amended on November 30 based on previous amendments to the Housing Act made on January 11, 2017. As a result, most tax discounts for public welfare landlords fell into 2018.
- Also, before homeowners received public welfare landlord tax benefits, some residences were already eligible for the primary residential land tax rate of 1.2%, which is the same as the discounted tax rate for public welfare landlords (1.2%), so no changes were made to the tax rate. Thus, the actual number of public welfare landlords should be higher, resulting in a larger discrepancy in the number of tax reduction households.
II. Land value tax
- 2017: 15,504 households according to parcel numbers. Taoyuan City came in first at 8,567 households, followed by Kaohsiung City at 4,313 households, and the third, Taichung City at 1,625 households. In 2017, only 5 special municipalities, i.e., Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Taichung City, Tainan City, and Kaohsiung City, as well as Chiayi County had tax reduction households.
- 2018: 21,179 households according to parcel numbers. Taoyuan City came in first at 9,357 households, followed by Kaohsiung City at 5,515 households, and the third, Taichung City at 2,260 households. In 2018, only 5 special municipalities, i.e., Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Taichung City, Tainan City, and Kaohsiung City, as well as 4 counties (cities), i.e., Yilan County, Miaoli County, Nantou County, and Chiayi County had tax reduction households.
III. Individual income tax
- Because individual income taxes are filed every May based on the income of the previous year, this survey looks at the number of households with individual income tax reductions in 2017, i.e., those filed in May 2018.
- Categorized based on the location of leased residences, there were 47,595 landowner households with individual income tax deduction. New Taipei City came in first at 14,748 households, followed by Kaohsiung City at 6,781 households, and the third, Taoyuan City at 6,532 households. In 2017, the only area without tax deduction households was Hsinchu County.
