Taiwan's Ministry of Finance has issued a notice explaining that companies may use current-year surplus earnings to offset (make-up for) past losses when declaring undistributed earnings, including those from before 1997. This is related to the introduction of undistributed earnings declaration requirements in 1998, and the misconception that the offset of past losses only applies to losses after 1998. This is highlighted in an example where a company claimed a deduction for past losses desp…