Average Corporate Tax Rate in Taiwan Slightly Down to 35% in 2013

Commissioned by the World Bank, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC) surveyed 189 economies to assess business environments, having released such results recently showing that the average tax rate of global enterprises had fallen to 44.3% in 2013 from 2004's 53.4%, due to easing taxation by many nations.

In the same period Taiwan saw such tax rate slightly down by 0.8 of a percentage point to 35%, yet still higher than its neighboring competitors including Singapore (27.1%) and Hong Kong (22.9%). China's corporate tax rate climbed to a high of 63.7% in 2013, which is likely due to rising wages and surging land cost.

However, most governments are lowering business income tax rates to help enhance their competitiveness, hence the average global business income tax rate having dropped 2.7 percentage points last year.

Likewise, Taiwan lowered such rate to 17% in the same year, but sharply raised the labor tax rate to 19% in 2012 from 2004's 10.6%. (JL)