萬國法律事務所

The Directives of the Ministries of Finance and of the Interior of 1993 and 2004 respectively, which instructed the tax collection agency to levy land value tax instead of farmland tax on urban odd lots were recently declared unconstitutional and void by Justices of the Constitutional Court in Interpretation No. 674.

As an urban odd lot may be used for building purposes in combination with an adjacent land, the two Directives previously provided that the farmland tax under the Land Tax Act and the Equalization of Land Rights Act should not apply to such odd lots, and that the tax collection agency should instead levy the land value tax on such odd lots. However, the Justices determined in a recent Interpretation that the above Directives violated Article 9 of the Constitution and should no longer be applicable from the date of the announcement of the Interpretation. As collection of the farmland tax has already been ceased by the authority, such urban odd lots will hereafter be exempt from any taxation.

The Justices reasoned that the Constitution expressly states that all taxation should be levied under the statutory authority and that any administrative directive going beyond the authorized scope should be deemed unconstitutional and void.