A proposed taxation agreement with China expected to be signed during the fourth round of cross-Taiwan Strait talks later this month will protect Taiwanese businessmen operating in China, lower the burden on taxpayers and increase the government's tax revenues in the long run, Finance Minister Lee Sush-der said Thursday. Lee also gave an assurance that information on neither individuals nor companies will be revealed during tax information exchanges between the two sides, in line with international tax treaty protocols. Such information will only be supplied when there is a specific need for tax inspection in cases of major tax evasion, he added. He made the remarks at a session at the Legislative Yuan in which legislators voiced concern that the taxation agreement might enable China to obtain more financial information about Taiwanese businessmen operating there, which could affect their future operations. Lee said the agreement closely follows guidelines set forth by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations in their model tax convention documents. Taiwan has signed similar tax treaties with 16 countries. Among those 16 countries, Lee said, there have been only eight cases of tax information exchange -- all of them in relation to major tax evasion or avoidance -- in the past five years, with four cases initiated by Taiwan. He also said it would be impossible for either side to send officials across the strait to conduct tax inspections. The taxation agreement will cover issues such as the taxation rights of each government, the avoidance of double taxation and mutual assistance on taxation matters. In recent talks, both sides have reached consensus on most of the contents of the agreement, including tax allocation and exchange of tax information. President Ma Ying-jeou has said that all cross-strait agreements, including the taxation one, must be open and transparent to the public, and must be reviewed and approved by the Legislative Yuan. Lee said that without the taxation agreement, the two sides can hide their incomes from each other, causing a lot of unfairness, and that the agreement will help improve information transparency and better protect Taiwanese businessmen working in China. In the long term, the agreement could also help attract more Chinese corporate investment into Taiwan, further increasing the government's tax revenues, Lee said. The agreement will also ensure that Taiwanese workers who stay for less than 183 days per year in China will only have to pay taxes on their salaries received in China to the Chinese government rather than suffering double taxation. There are about 1 million Taiwanese people working in China, who mostly allocate a larger portion of their income to be received in Taiwan so they can enjoy the country's lower income tax rate. In addition, as the amount of Taiwanese investment in China is far bigger than the amount of Chinese investment in Taiwan, the Chinese government will need to give up its taxation right or apply lower tax rates for some of its income after the agreement takes effect. Taiwan's net tax revenue for the first 11 months of this year totaled NT$1.43 trillion, representing a 14.6 percent drop from the same period of last year, according to the latest statistics released by the ministry Thursday. The fourth and latest round of cross-strait talks between Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, and Chen Yunlin, president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, is scheduled to take place in Taichung City Dec. 22-23. The negotiations will mainly focus on four issues -- fishery cooperation, avoidance of double taxation, examination and certification of standards and the inspection and quarantine of agricultural products. 