House tax is exempted for private buildings in any of the following situations:
1. School buildings and office buildings owned by a private school or an academic research institute on record with the competent authority and duly registered as a non-profit organization.
2. Houses owned and directly used for its activities by a private charitable institution on record with the competent authority and duly registered as a non-profit organization.
3. Shrines owned by clansmen organization and used exclusively for ancestral worship, or churches and temples owned and used by religious groups for religious service, provided such organization or group has been duly registered as a non-profit organization or temple.
4. Houses offered free of charge to government organizations for public or military use.
5. Offices owned and directly used by a non-profit organization whose establishment has been duly approved by the government. However, the above situation does not include any organization that limits its services to the people of same trade, the same locality, schoolmates, or clansmen, unless it is a labor union registered in accordance with the Labor Union Act and has been approved for exemption by special municipality, county, or city government through local tax authority.
6. Buildings for stock farming, greenhouses for cultivating agricultural products, operation buildings for growing rice seedlings, places of artificial reproduction, water pumps, kilns for smoking tobacco, dry machines for rice and tea leaves, warehouse for storing farming machines, and dung heaps.
7. Houses of which 50% or more of the floor area has been destroyed in a major disaster and which must be repaired before they become usable.
8. Houses owned by a judicial protection institution.
9. Up to three houses for residential purposes each with a current value of NT$100,000 or less owned by a natural person in the whole country; the current value of the house will be adjusted by the unit of NT$1,000 in accordance with its reassessed standard value as provided in Paragraph 2 of Article 11 herein; value adjustment of less than one unit will be treated as one unit.
10. Warehouses owned by farmers’ associations used exclusively for storage of public grains by the food administrations as attested by the competent authorities.
11. Houses acquired by a trustor based on a trust deed by a charitable trust and used for non-profit business, provided the establishment of such trust has been approved by the competent authorities in charge of the relevant industries.
House tax is reduced by half for private houses in any of the following situations:
1. Houses sold by the government to people at reduced prices.
2. Buildings owned by a duly-registered factory and used directly for production.
3. Warehouses and houses used for testing purposes which are owned and used by a farmers’ association as attested by the competent authorities.
4. Houses of which 30% or more but less than 50% of the floor area has been destroyed in a major disaster.
For houses that are entitled to house tax exemption or reduction pursuant to Items 1 to 8, 10, and 11 of Paragraph 1 and the preceding paragraph, the taxpayer shall file the exemption/reduction application with the local competent tax authority at least forty (40) days in advance of the commencement of the collection period for the taxable year; where the taxpayer fails to file the application in time, the exemption/reduction will become applicable from the taxable year following the taxpayer’s filing of the application. Where the exemption/reduction application has been approved, unless the reason for the exemption/reduction has changed, no further such application is required.
Where a natural person owns more than three houses for residential purposes each with a current value of NT$100,000 or less in the whole country, he/she shall, at least forty (40) days in advance of the commencement of the collection period for each taxable year, file an application with the local competent tax authority to designate the houses to which the exemption under Subparagraph 9, Paragraph 1 applies; where the taxpayer fails to file the application in time, the exemption will become applicable from the taxable year following the taxpayer’s application. Where the exemption application has been approved, unless the number of houses held by the taxpayer has changed, no further such application is required.
Where a natural person already owned more than three houses for residential purposes each with a current value of NT$100,000 or less in the whole country by July 1, 2024, he/she shall, by March 22, 2025, file an application with the local competent tax authority to designate the houses to which the exemption under Subparagraph 9, Paragraph 1 applies; where the taxpayer fails to file the application in time, the local competent tax authority will designate the most favorable houses for the taxpayer.
For the tallying of privately owned houses under Subparagraph 9, Paragraph 1, the application procedures under the preceding two paragraphs, the method for designating the most favorable houses under the preceding paragraph, and other relevant matters, the guidelines thereof shall be established by the Ministry of Finance.