July 21, 2019
Anna Murray
The World Taxpayers Associations (WTA) held the 17th World Taxpayer’s Human Rights Conference in Sydney, Australia. More than 30 countries and nearly 500 tax reform groups, experts and scholars from around the world attended the meeting, exchanging the current situation of taxpayer’s rights and the trend of tax reform with a view to supervising the reform of the government tax system.
The Human Rights observers of the United Nations NGO World Citizens Association, the young volunteers of Tax Reform Coalition and representatives from all walks of life in Taiwan were invited to the "Tax Reformation and Conscience Will Save Taiwan" forum at the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. They shared first-hand news, explored the tax environment in Taiwan and made specific suggestions.
Lawyer Li, li-xin delivered a special report on the topic of "Building Taiwan's Tax Conscience Project." As an observer of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations NGO World Citizens Association (Taiwan), she mentioned Taiwan’s unique phenomenon of eternal taxation bills in the "World Taxpayer’s Human Rights Conference." The representatives all felt incredible!
Bjorn Tarras-Wahlberg, founder and secretary general of the World Taxpayers Association, bluntly said, "Taiwanese taxpayers' rights have been neglected. Taiwan government should provide taxpayers with a better protection system and create a court with real tax expertise!"
From the experience of successful reforms in various countries, Li, li-xin summed up three points worthy of Taiwan's emulation: (1) The judicial power should play the role of debugging and suppress the dysfunctional tax relief system. (2) The legislative power should play a supervisory mechanism and legislate to check and balance the abuse of tax rulings. (3) People should awaken and exert pressure to promote the effectiveness of tax reform. Everyone’s sense of democratic consciousness must be awakened and everyone should struggle for taxpayers’ rights so as to enjoy the human dignity of taxpayers.
Zhang Jing, a lawyer at Jingwei Law Firm, said that Taiwanese generally do not trust the judiciary because judges abused the "principle of discretional evidence." Take the Tai Ji Men index tax case of the Taichung High Administrative Court's 104nd v. (?) No. 228 judgment as an example. Three judges, including Lin, Chiu-hua, the presiding judge, abused the principle of discretional evidence, having no concept of exclusionary rule at all. It’s hard to accept the fact that they violated the law but weren’t punished at all.
Tsai, Wei-jie, Convener of Certified Public Bookkeepers Association, the Supervisory Board of the National Federation of the Republic of China, shared the experience of facing the NTB: "The standard of internal evaluation of the tax collector lies in better performance, better assessment. The rationality of taxation is never considered." He reminded the tax collectors of having conscience, never leading taxpayers to bankruptcy. He mentioned that to participate in tax reform, to resist unreasonable tax system, and to keep tax system transparent and reasonable are the original force for the country to move forward.
Ms. Lin, a project manager with rich experience in fiscal and taxation practice, said that 20 years ago, she worked as an accountant in a foreign company. The tax collectors usually hinted her to put a red envelope in the account books in order to successfully declare the business tax! Although the bribery situation has changed slightly, the NTB still uses various means of threats like checking accounts continuously or negotiating to force people to pay taxes. She mentioned that Taiwan can follow the USA and push the quick reform of the tax system.
A-lin, a young volunteer of the Tax Reform Coalition, heard WTA Chairman John say at the World Taxpayer’s Rights Conference, "Everyone is related to tax, even if you are a student who doesn’t have to pay taxes." She urged everyone to make effort for tax reform.
An Jie, a young volunteer of the Tax Reform Coalition, cited the saying of Scott Hennig, CEO of the Canadian Taxpayers Association, "No taxation without representation." People have the right to know all about the taxation. If people do not see how the tax is spent, the government should not tax people. The Ministry of Finance in Taiwan has collected more than 600 billion NT dollars of surplus tax revenue during the five years, but the flow of this money is unclear. She was worried about the problems of human rights although Taiwan is a democratic country.
An Jie is a Tai Ji Men disciple. She pointed out that the Tai Ji Men case has been delayed for 23 years. The Administrative Court and the Petitions and Appeals Committee of the Ministry of Finance have judged Tai Ji Men to be not guilty 18 times, but the government has still not resolved it. Former US President Clinton's legal counsel and famous human rights lawyer, professor of law at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA., Kenneth Jacobsen, has studied the Tai Ji Men case for two years. He said, "I have never seen a case in which the government has violated so many legitimate legal procedures." An Jie said that her Shifu made public this ridiculous tax system, the persecution and the evils of the officials only to hope that one day the case will never ever be repeated. She appealed to all presidential candidates, “Now is the time for reform. Facing mistakes and reconciliation are the real transformation justice!"
Photo:Webshot.