Tax in Taiwan: VAT, company tax, capital gains
5%
Taiwan charges 5% VAT (營業稅) on most goods and services. The rate is verified against Taxation Administration, Ministry of Finance, R.O.C. on 19 August 2026; the headline company tax rate is 20% (Laws & Regulations Database of the ROC (Ministry of Justice) - Income Tax Act art. 5).
VAT (營業稅) in Taiwan
Value-added: VAT (營業稅) is charged on sales and reclaimed on purchases, so only the added value is taxed.
- Standard rate
- 5%
- Local name
- VAT (營業稅) — Value Added Tax
- Type
- VAT
- Reduced rates
- None on record
- Filing
- Quarterly / Monthly / Annual
- Authority
- Taxation Administration, Ministry of Finance, R.O.C.
- Current rate since
- 1 January 2000
Introduced 1951 (the Uniform Invoice receipt system); the business tax became a credit-invoice VAT in 1986
Taiwan's most distinctive tax idea arrived decades before its VAT. From 1 January 1951 every registered business had to issue a standardised government receipt — the Uniform Invoice — and each one doubled as a lottery ticket, giving shoppers a reason to insist on getting one. The business tax was converted into a value-added tax at 5% in 1986, but the receipt lottery has run continuously ever since 1951.
What it replaced: A gross business receipts tax charged on turnover; the 1986 reform converted most of it into a value-added business tax at 5%, while a non-value-added receipts tax was kept for sectors such as finance.
Company tax in Taiwan
The headline corporate income tax rate is 20%. In effect since 1 January 2018.
Profit-seeking enterprise income tax 20% from taxable year 2018 onward (Income Tax Act art. 5; transitional 18%/19% in 2018-2019 for income NT$120,001-500,000). A 5% surtax on undistributed earnings (art. 66-9) and an alternative minimum tax (Income Basic Tax Act) also apply - not read this session. Not covered by OECD Table II.1. Reduced rate 0%, not modelled as a small-company rate: Total taxable income of NT$120,000 or less is exempt; above NT$120,000 the 20% rate applies but tax payable may not exceed half of the taxable income above NT$120,000.
Capital gains tax in Taiwan
- Shares
- Exempt: income tax on gains from securities transactions is suspended (and losses are not deductible) - Income Tax Act art. 4-1
- Property
- House and Land Consolidated Income Tax (separate tax) on houses/land acquired on or after 1 Jan 2016, for resident individuals: 45% if held 2 years or less; 35% over 2 to 5 years; 20% over 5 to 10 years; 15% over 10 years (art. 14-4)
- Holding period
- None
Did you know? Taiwan tax facts
Taiwan has been running a national lottery on shop receipts since 1 January 1951: every standardised 'Uniform Invoice' is a ticket, so customers demand receipts and sales end up on the books. Tax revenue rose 75% in the first year.
The Finance Ministry collected NT$51 million in 1951 against NT$29 million in 1950. Draws are held on the 25th of every odd-numbered month, and the top special prize was lifted from NT$2 million to NT$10 million in 2011.
Source: Wikipedia — Uniform Invoice ↗You can hand your lottery odds to a good cause at the till: Taiwanese shoppers are able to donate their receipts to charity at the point of sale, so the nonprofit claims any prize instead of the buyer.
Eight prize tiers run from the NT$10 million special prize down to NT$200. Paper slips are increasingly optional — shoppers show a QR code at the register or let the transaction ride on a linked credit card, and the bank tells them if they have won.
Source: ABC News (Australia) — Taiwan's cunning tax compliance makes most shopping receipts a ticket in a lottery ↗Taiwan dropped its 45% top income-tax bracket from the 2018 tax year, leaving five rates — 5%, 12%, 20%, 30% and 40% — and a stay of 183 days or more in a year makes you a tax resident.
Wikipedia: 'The 45% income tax bracket was dropped from the 2018 tax year onwards'; the 2026 table lists 5%, 12%, 20%, 30% and 40%; residency applies to anyone domiciled in Taiwan or who stays 'for 183 days or longer in a taxable year'.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Taiwan · checked 10 October 2026 ↗
More stories, for every country that has one, on the tax facts page.
Ask your AI assistant about tax in Taiwan
The figures on this page are callable by any MCP-compatible assistant through the free Tax MCP. Add https://taxmcp.ai2fin.com as a custom connector in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or your own agent — no login, no API key — then ask:
- “What is the VAT (營業稅) rate in Taiwan, and what is the source?”
- “Add 5% VAT (營業稅) to a net amount of TWD 1,000.”
- “What is the company tax rate in Taiwan and how is it sourced?”
Connect in three steps, and what a connected answer looks like: Tax MCP.
Taiwan, answered
Questions about tax in Taiwan
- What is the VAT (營業稅) rate in Taiwan?
- The standard VAT (營業稅) (Value Added Tax) rate in Taiwan is 5%, verified against Taxation Administration, Ministry of Finance, R.O.C. on 19 August 2026. Value-added: VAT (營業稅) is charged on sales and reclaimed on purchases, so only the added value is taxed.
- What is the company tax rate in Taiwan?
- The headline corporate income tax rate in Taiwan is 20%, verified against Laws & Regulations Database of the ROC (Ministry of Justice) - Income Tax Act art. 5 on 6 October 2026. Profit-seeking enterprise income tax 20% from taxable year 2018 onward (Income Tax Act art. 5; transitional 18%/19% in 2018-2019 for income NT$120,001-500,000). A 5% surtax on undistributed earnings (art. 66-9) and an alternative minimum tax (Income Basic Tax Act) also apply - not read this session. Not covered by OECD Table II.1. Reduced rate 0%, not modelled as a small-company rate: Total taxable income of NT$120,000 or less is exempt; above NT$120,000 the 20% rate applies but tax payable may not exceed half of the taxable income above NT$120,000.
- How is capital gains tax charged in Taiwan?
- In Taiwan, the regime is mixed, verified against Ministry of Justice Laws & Regulations Database (Income Tax Act, English) on 6 October 2026. On shares: Exempt: income tax on gains from securities transactions is suspended (and losses are not deductible) - Income Tax Act art. 4-1 Holding period: None
- Can an AI assistant look up tax rates for Taiwan?
- Yes. The free Tax MCP at https://taxmcp.ai2fin.com gives Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP-compatible agent the same sourced figures as this page: the VAT (營業稅) rate, the company tax rate, the capital gains rule and a side-by-side comparison with other countries, each answer citing the authority and the date it was checked. Add the endpoint as a custom connector; there is no login or API key.
- How current is the Taiwan tax information on this page?
- Every figure on this page carries the date it was last checked against its source; the most recent check is 10 October 2026. The consumption-tax rate comes from a maintained rate ledger cross-checked against Taxation Administration, Ministry of Finance, R.O.C., and each income, company and capital-gains figure has its own source and date. A figure that has not yet been verified against a linked official source says so instead of claiming a tick. General information computed from published government rates, not tax advice. Check the linked authority or a registered adviser before relying on a figure.
Sources
- Taxation Administration, Ministry of Finance, R.O.C.
- Laws & Regulations Database of the ROC (Ministry of Justice) - Income Tax Act art. 5
- Wikipedia — Uniform Invoice
- ABC News (Australia) — Taiwan's cunning tax compliance makes most shopping receipts a ticket in a lottery
- Wikipedia — Taxation in Taiwan
Last checked 10 October 2026. General information computed from published government rates, not tax advice. Check the linked authority or a registered adviser before relying on a figure.
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