Department of Finance

You Shih-ming, the commissioner of the Department of Finance (DOF), Taipei City Government (TCG), was invited to attend the IAAO (International Association of Assessing Officers) 2023 Annual Conference & Exhibition held in the United States. The IAAO is a professional membership organization of assessment officials, the annual conference open sessions considerably discussing real estate assessment and appraisal techniques, geographical information systems (GIS), and other practical implementation aspects to assessment and taxation affairs related to property types of residence, commerce, industrial, and agriculture. Thousands of government assessment officials from the US and Canada, and representatives from various countries gather at the annual conference, the biggest and international annual event of real estate assessment. Most cities or municipalities in the US and Canada apply CAMA (Computer Assisted Mass Assessment, CAMA) as the basis for taxation assessment to property taxes. This year we were classified as a province of China at first, after Commissioner You wrote a letter for correction, finally the flag of the participating countries was presented at the conference, and we were named Taiwan.

The IAAO annual conference was held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA this year. In line with the local landscape, the conference took "Blazing Trail" as the main theme, and was divided into seven topics and 60 sessions. The IAAO President, Mr. Patrick Alesandrini, is the assessor of Hillsborough County, Florida; the succeeding president, Ms. Rebecca Malmquist, is the assessor of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Commissioner You presented souvenirs on behalf of Mayor Chiang Wan-an and shared Taipei's experiences of assessment for property tax with two directors of the board.

According to the IAAO standards, the US and Canada adopt assessment ratio, coefficient of dispersion (COD), and price-related Differential (PRD) as assessing indicators for the purpose of consistency and fairness. Taipei City Government held the “Taipei City Real Estate Assessment Committee” every 3 years to adjust the standard value of the house. The affiliated agency of DOF, the Taipei City Revenue Service had adjusted the 230 road sections referred to the above-mentioned COD and PRD indicators in order to keep house tax levy in Taipei more reliable and fair.

House tax and land value tax are important tax sources for local governments in Taiwan, and the tax bases were separately assessed by the taxation and land administration authorities. Due to individual factors of the land being often ignored when the land is evaluated sectionally, the Ministry of the Interior of the ROC enforced the "Land Price Appraisal Technology Improvement and Real Price Registration Data Application Development Plan" in recent years. It collected a larger number of computer evaluation models to estimate land values and established a price and tax platform in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance to communicate from time to time. The representative from the Department of Land Administration, Ministry of the Interior also joined the sessions together. Some articles from this conference such as "Increasing Appraisal Capacity in the Big Apple With Mobile Technology" could be valuable references for domestic computer assessment; about the non-metropolitan area, the problem with establishing a model by lack of samples, the article "How to Implement Regression Modeling in a Small Jurisdiction" could be the possible solution. As to the fairness emphasized for property taxation, the article "Demonstration of the Lincoln Institute Vertical Fair App Demonstration Equity App” could inspire us.

By means of experiences shared with experts from countries and states in the US, we expect to expedite central-level evaluation computerization of land value and contribute to the fairness of property taxation. It’ll provide feasible advice for the proceedings of joint taxation of house and land tax, and also promote the objectives of achieving smart city rating for cities in Taiwan.