Uniform Invoice lottery

The Uniform Invoice or Unified Invoice, better known as the Taiwan receipt lottery (simplified Chinese:统一发票; traditional Chinese:統一發票; pinyin:Tǒngyī fāpiào), is a form of state lottery managed by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of China.

The lottery was conceptualized by the first Kuomingtang (KMT) finance chief, Jen Hsien-qun (simplified Chinese:任显群; traditional Chinese:任顯群; pinyin:Rèn xiǎnqún), to boost tax revenues in the early days of the KMT government. The introduction of this lottery on January 1, 1951 encouraged locals to obtain receipts for every purchase made with businesses with a monthly turnover of NT$200,000 (US$6,200) and above. As a result, the Finance Ministry collected NT$51 million (US$1.6 million) that year, representing a 75% increase from the NT$29 million (US$900,000) collected in 1950.