Taiwan’s tax-return dependent mix skewed older in 2024, with people at least 70 accounting for 27.1% of the pool even as total claims contracted from the 2015 level.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) reported 6.58 million dependents in tax claims for 2024; the 2015 tally was about 7.13 million. Over those years, the share aged 70 and above increased 8.2 percentage points. In a report dated Tuesday, Oct. 27, the MOF presented the figures as income-tax data. Taxpayers and their spouses are not included in the dependent count. The ministry identifies people age 70 and older in the data as lineal ascendants. The 27.1% is a share of tax-listed dependents; it does not indicate what proportion of Taiwan’s older population is claimed. Nor do these records show the family support or care older adults receive.
A record four million households filed as single in 2024, representing 57.4% of all filings. Among the net additions over the comparison period, nearly eight in 10 were single-filer households with no dependents, the report said. The ministry said the lower legal age of majority led more young people to file independently and accounted for part of the increase. These household figures count filings, while the age percentages refer to people listed as dependents.
Fewer filing households reported more than two dependents among both married and unmarried filers; the MOF said this was consistent with smaller household sizes. People under 18 made up 37% of claimed dependents in 2024. Before 2022, the ministry’s tables grouped people under 20 in that age category. The change to an under-18 cutoff means the age figures do not use the same definition across the full period.
Separately, 399,000 households claimed the long-term-care special deduction in 2024, totaling a record NT$51.77 billion. The MOF linked growth in the deduction to population aging. The highest-income fifth accounted for 39.7% of the amount claimed. The report gives the deduction amounts claimed but does not state how much those claims lowered households’ tax bills.
