◎ Li Ke
Harvard University professors recently used Taiwan's two major successful cases as teaching plans. The reason why these two fields are called miracles that "other countries cannot learn from" is that it is an honor to be born in Taiwan. We hope to continue to maintain good results. After reading the media reports, one is happy and the other is worried. The good thing is that NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has publicly stated many times that Taiwan is the core epicenter of the global artificial intelligence (AI) revolution; the worrying thing is that the Chinese people are complacent and have forgotten the potential crises. Other countries are also rushing to catch up, not to mention the geopolitical and Trump tariff crises.
Talking about the tariff crisis, we have to think of a shocking news recently. The report said: "The Central District Taxation Bureau of the Ministry of Finance revealed a major corruption case involving senior officials colluding with accountants! The "No. 4 person" Wang Jian, who ranks second only to the chief, deputy director and chief secretary in the bureau, was appointed as an auditor and was suspected of taking advantage of the tax affairs such as comprehensive income tax. Quan has secretly colluded with many accountants for many years to collect bribes and help wealthy businessmen and the public evade huge taxes. "It is reported that when Taichung Mayor Lu Xiuyan was a member of the Finance Committee of the Legislative Yuan, there were many cases of tax complaints from people in the Central District, which was particularly hard-hit by the tax disaster. She repeatedly proposed law amendments and questions in the Legislative Yuan, emphasizing tax fairness and tax justice.
The Taichung District Prosecutor's Office investigated Wang Zhiyi, a simplified auditor of the Central District Taxation Bureau, for allegedly colluding with accountants to help evade taxes, and the prosecutors seized a large amount of cash. (File photo, reproduced by reporter Chen Jianzhi)
"The most unfortunate public interest lawyer in history, Huang Wenhuang: Bearing a tax bill of 112 million yuan." This case occurred in Central District. In order to achieve the purpose of tax collection, the Internal Revenue Service did not hesitate to bend the facts and distort the facts. Lawyer Huang Wenhuang was appointed as the estate administrator by the Taichung District Court. Not only did he volunteer as a public interest lawyer, but he also paid more than 3,000 yuan to handle the case. Unexpectedly, the Internal Revenue Service suddenly issued a heavy fine to Huang Wenhuang. A tax bill worth hundreds of millions and a nightmare began and have not ended yet. The chairman of the Taichung Bar Association also requested the assistance of Lu Xiuyan, member of the Finance Committee of the Commercial Legislative Yuan. Lawyer Huang Wenhuang reported to the then Deputy Minister of Finance Zhang Shenghe, but Zhang Shenghe immediately interrupted: You don’t need to tell me, I already know it! And then turned around and said to him fiercely: If you are not punished, you will collude with the heir! It turns out that our officials believe that people are thieves and have cognitive bias. The heir in this case has abandoned the inheritance and ran away. How can we collude?
The opposite of justice is evil. So, what is "evil"? It may be hidden in daily systems and procedures, in the seemingly reasonable but specious phrase "administration according to law." When we talk about the "banality of evil," we are not trying to label all law enforcement officers as "evil," but we want to ask a more important question: When an administrative decision may cause errors or unfairness, is it enough to say "I just followed the rules" to stop thinking, examining, and correcting it? If even the Undersecretary of Finance uses this kind of thinking logic, who will protect the people’s tax justice? Therefore, the Central District Internal Revenue Service has shocked the public with a major corruption case involving high-level officials colluding with accountants. It is also possible that it will break out sooner or later!
Former Deputy Finance Minister Zhang Shenghe. (File photo)
In the past, there were ten powerful female tax collectors in the Central District Internal Revenue Service, and the Taichung High Administrative Court had 100% judges who ruled against the people in tax litigation. As long as the people were stuck in tax cases, and as long as there were interests involved, someone would commit crimes, because human nature cannot restrain greed. The historian Sima Qian had long said: "Everything in the world is bustling for profit; the world is bustling, everything is for profit." Professors from Harvard University speak so highly of Taiwan. We should not belittle ourselves. We should give full play to the four words "gratitude and cherishing blessings" that are deeply rooted in the hearts of Taiwanese people. That is the resilience of society and the confidence of Taiwan.
