Taiwan’s Ministry of Finance has released a notice explaining the levy of business tax on goods purchased for personal use through cross-border e-commerce.
Recently, Kaohsiung Customs has received numerous inquiries from the public on why business tax should be levied on goods purchased for personal use, not for sale, on cross-border e-commerce platforms.
The Customs stated that the country’s business tax is based on the principle of taxation at the place of consumption. According to Article 1 of the Value-added and Non-Value Added Business Tax Act, imported goods shall be subject to business tax by law. Article 41 of the same law further stipulates the business tax on imported goods shall be levied by Customs.
The Customs further stated that for goods purchased through cross-border online shopping, those with customs value within TWD 2,000 are exempt from customs duties, business tax, and commodity tax.
However, this exemption does not apply to tobacco, alcohol, agricultural products subject to tariff quotas, and frequently-imported goods. Frequent importation refers to:
- An importer who has imported goods under the duty exemption provision of Article 49, Paragraph 2 of the Customs Act more than six times within a half-year.
- The term “half-year” refers to the periods from January to June and from July to December each year.
- The number of importations is determined by the importation date and is recalculated from 1 January and 1 July each year.
Kaohsiung Customs reminds the public that if there are any questions regarding the tax payable on cross-border online shopping goods, they may contact the appointed customs brokers to understand declaration status to protect their own rights and interests.
