Tiffany Hsiao
The Ministry of the Interior issued the Tai-Cai-Shui-10804518460 Directive of July 23, 2019 (hereinafter, the “Directive”), pointing out that a building provided for production use may be a property under a self-interest trust, and an application to halve the housing tax may be filed.
According to this Directive, a self-owned building registered as a factory and directly provided for production use is a trust property where the building is possessed by the trustee during the subsistence of the trust relationship. Therefore, the provisions concerning halved housing taxes under Article 15, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 2 of the House Tax Act do not apply. However, if the building has been mortgaged to a financial institution before the trust relationship is established, the mortgagee also serves as a trustee, the trustor (the original owner of the building) and the beneficiary are the same person (self-interest trust), and the usage of the building is not changed and does not violate its trust purposes, the trustor shall be deemed the owner of the building and be eligible to apply for halved housing tax pursuant to Paragraph 3 of the same article.