Taiwan: Changes to corporate income tax for profit-seeking companies

Taiwan has made significant changes to its corporate income tax structure. The new provisions will be effective from the 2019 tax filing. The changes are as follows:

• The income tax rate for profit-seeking companies with more than TWD 500,000 taxable income will increase from 17% to 20%
•  For companies with total taxable income of less than TWD 500,000 the tax rate will increase by 1% per annum towards 20% in 2020
• Tax rate on retained earnings has been reduced from 10% to 5% for the taxable year 2018 (filing year 2020) onwards, and any earnings of the current year not distributed are subject to an additional tax at a rate of 10%
• An increased withholding tax rate from 20% to 21% has been imposed on dividends distributed to non-residents from 1 January 2018