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全球右轉下的稅改錯位:台灣為何留不住高階人才
Tax Reform Misalignment Amid a Global Rightward Shift: Why Taiwan Cannot Retain High-Level Talent
Yahoo News Taiwan | Local Language | News | Oct. 13, 2025 | UndeterminedTaxes
Taiwan’s tax reforms have largely been superficial, failing to address core economic imbalances. The government targets high-income earners as tax burdens while avoiding reforms on “capitalist privilege,” where profit distribution heavily favors capital over labor. Taiwan shows a stark imbalance, with nearly half of manufacturing profits and over 60% in wholesale/retail accruing to capitalists—much higher than global averages—resulting in stagnant real wages despite high GDP growth.
Taiwan’s top personal income tax rate stands at 40%, the highest among the Four Asian Tigers, creating a high-tax, low-pay environment that dissuades foreign-invested companies and international talent, undermining industrial upgrading. In contrast, capital faces a relatively low effective tax rate, often below 20%, due to tax exemptions on capital gains, low land value taxes, and allowances for business expense deductions. This disparity exacerbates Taiwan’s wealth gap and hampers economic transformation.
While global trends, exemplified by the U.S., focus on lowering taxes for high-income individuals to attract talent and boost domestic competitiveness amid growing localization and trade barriers, Taiwan’s government continues to impose high tax burdens on high earners, neglecting the need to realign tax burdens on capital. Past reforms disproportionately impact salaried workers while capitalists maintain advantages. Without structural changes to tax policy and income distribution, Taiwan risks losing high-level talent and falling behind in industrial innovation.
The article advocates for Taiwan to reform its income tax system to align more closely with Hong Kong and Singapore, lowering rates to attract talent while preventing capital tax arbitrage. It urges raising labor’s share of GDP through profit-sharing mandates and adjusting taxes on capital assets to ensure more balanced wealth distribution. Failure to adapt could stall Taiwan’s long-term economic development and transformation, especially under ongoing global de-globalization pressures and uncertain prospects of industries like AI.