The world is changing at an increasingly rapid and unpredictable pace. From technology and pandemics to wars, climate change, and geopolitical challenges, the uncertainties are endless. To navigate these drastic shifts in our social and economic landscapes, everyone needs greater resilience to face life’s uncertainties, ensuring the long-term stability of society.

We believes that Universal Basic Income is the key to enhancing societal resilience, securing basic living conditions, and granting true freedom, allowing people to stay true to themselves and resist the pull of conformity in a turbulent world.

When discussing the financial sources for Universal Basic Income, UBI Taiwan hopes to inspire ideas from two major perspectives: 1) Expanding and optimizing public finances, and 2) Innovating social systems.

There are countless possibilities when it comes to public finance, and any approach must be tailored to local conditions while drawing on international examples. We aim to create sustainable revenue through modernized tax systems, including potential taxes such as VAT, big data tax, robot tax, energy tax, and carbon tax. Additionally, by streamlining welfare programs and reducing bureaucratic overhead, we can lower the overall cost of running society and return the savings to the people through UBI.

Regarding the path to implementing UBI, UBI Taiwan sees innovative social systems as crucial. We propose the concept of a "Personal Income Tax Reclamation Mechanism": unconditional distribution paired with a subsequent year tax return process to achieve a low-barrier, flexible, and predictable UBI policy.

• Unconditional distribution: Instead of trying to smartly decide who should receive the money, unconditional distribution followed by the next year’s tax filing can achieve a "post-wealth redistribution" effect, efficiently maximizing resource utilization.
• Reclamation mechanism: Set clear income tax brackets for UBI reclamation, allowing for a 100% reclaim from high-income groups while ensuring low-income groups are not affected, striking a balance between fairness and efficiency.
• Policy flexibility: The government can adjust income tax brackets based on the actual fiscal situation each year to respond to global economic changes and social emergencies, lowering the barriers to policy implementation and enhancing sustainability.
• Data-driven: By analyzing historical tax data, the government can accurately predict the amount of tax to be reclaimed each year, enabling data-driven fiscal planning for UBI, improving policy precision and transparency.