Ministry of Finance: Real Estate Tax Revenues Drop Synchronously in 2025, Land Value Increment Tax Sees Largest Drop in 9 Years

Central News Agency

(CNA Reporter Lu Yen-tzu, Taipei, 24th) The latest statistics from the Department of Statistics, Ministry of Finance, show that net real estate-related tax revenues in 2025 (114 ROC year) dropped synchronously under the impact of housing market control policies and a high base period. Among them, the land value increment tax decreased by 23.5% year-on-year, marking the largest drop in nearly 9 years. The personal house and land transactions income tax, which reflects the current housing market conditions, fell by 24% year-on-year. However, it still accounts for over 6% of the consolidated income tax, contributing to about 40% of the increase or decrease in consolidated income tax for the current year.

The Department of Statistics released a special report today on the "Status of Tax Collections Related to Real Estate Transactions in Recent Years," analyzing the changes in tax revenues for land value increment tax, deed tax, stamp tax, and house and land transactions income tax from 2019 to 2025.

Overall, the Department observed that before 2019, the land value increment tax was the largest source of real estate transaction tax revenues, accounting for over 80%. However, with the implementation of the house and land transactions income tax starting in 2016, the increasing number of applicable cases, and the launch of the 2.0 new system in 2021, its proportion surpassed the land value increment tax from 2024. In 2025, it further broke the 50% mark, reaching 52.4%.

The Department pointed out that the land value increment tax highly relies on large-value cases, has concentrated tax revenue areas, and correlates strongly with real estate market conditions. In recent years, it previously rose benefiting from Taiwanese businesses returning to invest and large land transactions. However, after 2021, following the cooling of the housing market, central bank interest rate hikes, and a high base period, tax revenues continuously declined. In 2025, due to stricter loan limits for land purchases and construction financing conditions, the net collected amount was NT$68.3 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 23.5%. This marks the lowest scale in 16 years and the largest drop in nearly 9 years, with its share of total tax revenues hitting an unprecedented low of 1.8%.

The Department stated that under the same background, the deed tax and real estate trading stamp tax, which are closely related to housing transaction activities, both saw year-on-year decreases in 2025. For the deed tax, the net collected amount in 2025 was NT$16 billion, down 17.1% year-on-year, the second-largest drop on record. Regarding the stamp tax, as real estate transactions cooled in 2025, the net collected amount fell to a 7-year low of NT$1.36 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 23.9%.

However, the Department added that although recent real estate transaction-related tax revenues have fluctuated and weakened, some townships and districts still performed well. Observing the land value increment tax and deed tax together, Beitun District in Taichung City has seen stable leading tax revenues over the past 3 years due to infrastructure benefits around the 14th Redevelopment Zone, leading to rapid growth in real estate supply and demand. Taoyuan District and Zhongli District in Taoyuan City belong to the Taipei-Keelung-Taoyuan living circle, and with recent transportation improvements, the population spillover from Taipei and New Taipei is obvious. Xinzhuang District and Banqiao District in New Taipei City also frequently top the list due to their proximity to the Taipei metropolitan area, convenient transportation, mature living functions, and the continuous launch of large residential projects.

As for the house and land transactions income tax, the Department explained that as the effects of the 2.0 new system in curbing short-term speculation gradually emerge, cases with high tax rates like 35% and 45% have reduced by nearly half over the past 3 years. The future tax revenue structure may skew more towards medium-to-long-term holding transactions. According to statistics, the net collected amount in 2025 was NT$94.4 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 6.3% under a high base period, marking the first decline since its introduction. However, its tax revenue scale remains comparable to the house tax and land value tax.

The Department stated that if distinguished by tax revenue sources, the corporate house and land transactions income tax is merged into the annual corporate income and filed for settlement in May of the following year, thus reflecting the real estate transaction situation of the previous year. In contrast, the personal house and land transactions income tax must be filed immediately after the real estate transaction, correlating more closely with the current housing market conditions. The net collected amount of personal house and land transactions income tax in 2025 was NT$54.43 billion, down 24% year-on-year, but it still accounted for over 6% of the consolidated income tax, compared to the past 3-year average of about 7%, and its contribution to the increase or decrease of the consolidated income tax in both 2024 and 2025 reached about 40%.

The Department supplemented that in recent years, personal house and land transactions income tax revenues in the six special municipalities mostly showed double-digit growth. However, in 2023, there were mixed increases and decreases due to a housing market downturn. In 2025, due to a higher base period, except for New Taipei City, which saw a contrarian increase of 11.6% and is the only one to grow consecutively so far, the rest saw decreases of about 30%, with Taichung City experiencing the sharpest year-on-year drop of 32.7%. Furthermore, the Hsinchu area, which does not belong to the six municipalities, saw tax revenues halved in 2025 due to already high housing prices and the exit of speculative investors. Hsinchu County's drop reached as high as 54.6%, the highest in Taiwan. (Editor: Yang Lan-hsuan)