Amendment to the Vehicle License Tax Law (Taiwan)

2017.11.14
Yi-Shan Cheng

Articles 5, 7, 9, 11 and 38 of the Vehicle License Tax Law (hereinafter, the “Law”) were adopted during the 8th Meeting of the 4th Session of the 9th Term Legislative Yuan on November 14, 2017.  These amendments are highlighted below:

  1. Exemption of license taxes for electrical motor vehicles is authorized.

    Article 5, Paragraph 2 of the Law as amended provides that the government of a municipality under the direct jurisdiction of the Executive Yuan or county (city) is authorized to exempt the license taxes for motor vehicles entirely powered by electricity along with an application to the Ministry of Finance for reference.  In particular, such exemption period for electrical vehicles shall be January 6, 2012 through December 31, 2021; and for electrical scooters, such period shall be January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2021.

  2. The tax schedules for electrical scooters and electrical buses and trucks are revised.

    Effective on January 1 next year, Article 6 of this Law as amended revises the tax schedule for motor scooters by expanding the tax grades and amounts from three grades to six grades, adds the tax schedules for electrical buses and trucks and levies taxes by seven grades and tax amounts based on the maximum horse power of the motors.

  3. It is additionally stipulated that the exemption of license taxes on transportation vehicles of social welfare organizations dedicated to transporting the mentally and physically challenged and long-term care receivers is authorized and shall not be limited to three vehicles.

    The proviso of Article 7, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 9 of this Law as amended provides that with substantiation by social welfare agencies, transportation vehicles with lawful auxiliary equipment and a special logo which are dedicated to transporting the mentally or physically challenged or meeting long-term care service requirements may be exempt from license taxes with the approval of governments of municipalities under the direct jurisdiction of the Executive Yuan or counties (cities) and shall not be limited to three vehicles.