During the house tax inventory check, Local Tax Bureau of Taichung City Government has found that quite a number of houses have been changed in their layer, construction and area but their owners have failed to report such changes to the local tax authority, citing the reason that the changes were made on the original old houses with the same doorplate and under the same title deeds.
To clarify such a misconception, Local Tax Bureau pointed out that any house demolition case should be declared immediately to the tax authority where the housing unit is located; building addition and/or alteration should be declared within 30 days from the date of the occurrence; otherwise, the house owner may be punished for tax evasion. Building demolition and reconstruction without the permit and construction license issued by the competent authority is illegal, even if the new building has the same doorplate as the old one. The owner of an illegal building should still pay the house tax to fulfill his/her tax obligations; meanwhile the illegal building will never become legal only because house tax is paid.