Macau and Taiwan ditch double taxation in aviation industry

Macau and Taiwan’s authorities have reached a permanent bi-partisan agreement to shun double taxation for the aviation industry across both regions. Representatives from both sides inked the pact last week at the Macau Cultural Centre in an effort to convert a similar memorandum signed by both sides’ guilds in 1998 into what they described as a “long-term and constitutional agreement.”
The memorandum that is currently enforced require an annual renewal, after it November 2005. “This new agreement is signed by both authorities’ representatives to make it official and offer systematic safeguards,” said Ding Pi Lien, deputy director-general at the Department of International Fiscal Affairs in Taiwan’s Ministry of Finance.
She added that the move has been made to keep both sides abreast of the new global trends in similar agreements, and to continue providing financial benefits to both sides. In February last year, the MSAR and Taiwan signed their first government-level agreement which loosened restrictions on flights between the two countries, which also addressed  the flights’ carrying capacity.
According to the Taiwanese government, after almost one year of talks, both parties reached a consensus for the new pact in November this year.
Currently, a total of 93 flights from Taiwan’s three airlines – EVA Air, TransAsia Airways and Tigerair Taiwan – fly into Macau weekly, while Air Macau dispatches 35 flights across the strait.
“There has been good interaction between Macau and Taiwan,” said Leong Kit Chi, who heads the region’s economic and cultural delegation in Taiwan and officiated at the two aforementioned agreements. “The two agreements have made progress for the tourism and aviation industries of both sides. They serve as a great leap forward from what we had in the past.”