Agricultural Land Tax

The Agricultural Land Tax System, as well as being the oldest system in the taxation history of our country, is the oldest in the history of taxation in the world, Indeed, its history is almost as old as the development of human culture. In traditional society, its contribution to government revenue and thus to the advancement of society has been indispensable.

Agricultural land tax in our country first started with a tax of agricultural land and with payment made mainly in kind. In the succeeding four thousand plus years, the content and method of taxation have varied. At times, collection in kind prevailed and at other times monetary substitution or a combination thereof was adopted; but through there changes, the system of imposing a tax upon agricultural land has never been changed.

The scope of the present agricultural land tax system has been narrowed due to the ROC's economic development bringing about greater industrialization and urbanization, but agricultural land is still taxed in the same way that it has been for more than four thousand years. Collection is now a combination of payment in kind and monetary substitution. Products used for payment in kind include rice and wheat, and for agricultural land which does not produce these crops, the same value of tax payable in money is collected instead, depending on the actual production of the agricultural land in question.

The agricultural land tax is based on the "Taxable Amount" called "Fu Erh." Fu Erh is the sum of "Fu Yuan" (taxable units) which differs according to the category and grade of agricultural land in question.

Due to the fact that agricultural land tax is levied on agricultural land and that both money and agricultural products are collected, the taxing operation is both complicated and costly. Coupled with this fact is that there is only a comparatively small population in agriculture nowadays and that the taxable amount is thus limited. Also, the significance of the policy of the control of food sources has become obsolete due to the recent changes in socio-economic development. Thus, in order to improve the life of the farmers and the growth of agriculture , a policy designed to suspend the levying of agricultural land tax has been adopted. For this reason, the details of the agricultural land tax are not elaborated herein.