Tax Governance
In response to the global trend to implement tax governance and ensure corporate sustainability and tax compliance, the Bank submitted a proposal to the 7th meeting of the 16th Board of Directors and established the ''Taiwan Business Bank Tax Governance Policy''. The policy states that the Board of Directors is the ultimate decision making and supervisory unit for tax governance and is in charge of approving tax governance policies and ensuring tax governance policies work effectively. The Accounting Department at the Head Office is the supervisory unit for taxes and reports to the Board of Directors as needed based on the materiality of each issue. In addition, the Accounting Department files audited corporate income tax return at the end of May every year.
The use of tax strategies and management of tax costs at the Bank and its domestic and foreign subsidiaries should comply with the principles of sound business practice and tax integrity in order to reduce tax risk, increase shareholder value, and fulfill corporate social responsibility.
- Legal compliance:Comply with local tax laws, calculate correct taxes and pay the amounts by the statutory deadlines, and fulfill the social responsibility of a taxpayer.
- Risk management: Assess the impacts of changes of local tax laws and international tax guidelines where the business is conducted, and formulate response strategies.
- Economic substance: Not to use tax structures that are tax evasion based or without commercial substance, profit shifting to low tax jurisdictions, or tax avoidance via tax havens
- Arm's length transactions: Stakeholder transactions should adhere to the arm's-length principle and comply with the local transfer pricing rules where the business is conducted.
- Information transparency: Comply with financial reporting guidelines and the competent authorities' regulations, and disclose taxation information regularly to ensure tax transparency.
- Honest communication: Communicate with local tax authorities in places of operations in an open and honest manner to maintain friendly relationships.
- Cultivation of talents: Strengthen professional competence and professionalism of tax specialists and continue to cultivate professional tax talents through educational trainings and tax seminars.
The 2023 revenue, profit and loss before tax, and income tax information for the TBB Group in each tax jurisdiction are as follows:
(Unit: NT$1,000)
Tax jurisdictions | Number of employees | Revenues | Profit and loss before tax | Current income tax | Tax paid |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Taiwan |
5,511 |
29,273,108 |
10,606,543 |
1,487,559 |
2,585,151 |
China |
53 |
217,639 |
50,123 |
-47,873 |
14,371 |
Cambodia |
24 |
60,843 |
3,261 |
-2,091 |
1,073 |
Hong Kong |
34 |
637,858 |
452,360 |
39,160 |
86,908 |
Australia |
30 |
620,751 |
520,022 |
145,584 |
104,423 |
USA |
36 |
986,368 |
759,509 |
223,235 |
189,553 |
Japan |
14 |
116,977 |
35,989 |
14,558 |
12,277 |
Title | 2022 | 2023 | Average |
---|---|---|---|
Profit before income tax |
12,039,792 |
12,427,807 |
12,233,800 |
Income tax expense |
1,917,940 |
1,860,132 |
1,889,036 |
Effective tax rate |
15.93% |
14.97% |
15.44% |
Income tax paid |
648,645 |
2,993,756 |
1,821,201 |
Cash effective tax rate |
5.39% |
24.09% |
14.89% |
According to the average effective tax rate in the global banking industry provided in the S&P Global 2024 CSA Handbook, the Bank's effective tax rate was below the global industry average in 2022 and 2023. The main reason was that the Bank operated primarily in Taiwan, where the statutory income tax rate was 20% and below other countries. OBU and securities income being tax exempt in Taiwan also helped to push the Bank's effective income tax rate below the global average.
The income tax paid in 2023 is mainly due to (1) the back payment of income tax for 2022 in May 2023, and (2) the provisional tax payment in September 2023 (half of the income tax payable in the previous (2022) year was paid), etc.; net profit before tax in 2021, 2022 and 2023 are NT$5,802,046 thousand, NT$12,039,792 thousand and NT$12,427,807 thousand, respectively.