I see that the topic has been coveredmultiple times, but no details regarding things that I need.
Visa is not a problem as I will have JFRV. I’m primarily interested in the other legal related challenges when it comes to earning money overseas as a self-employed resident.
For example, in Canada, I have to be careful about how my relationship with the client is presented, as CRA may unilaterally decide that I’m not a contractor but an employee and require the employer to have a local presence and pay benefits. Are there any similar issues in Taiwan? Tax-wise I assume just having a competent accountant is enough. Feel free to suggest any in Taipei.
Also which banks are best for accepting international transfers regularly? Apparently not all are good:
Banking was an issue at first, but after the first year of regular cashflow CTCB seems content enough to not require me to go into the local branch with ID in hand to accept overseas transfers.
Not sure if this is the correct forum for this topic so feel free to move.
I think no. Though there are laws to protect workers’ rights/benefits, the authority does not actively do something for workers. So, even if there is a law telling your relationship with clients should be employment, it won’t be forced unless you appeal it with enough evidences by yourself.
If your income exceed a certain limit, I think you should resister your business.
Thanks for the response and bringing up another point I forgot to mention - opening a business. What is this limit you mentioned, approx? With Taiwan’s low salaries I think I might go over quickly; but if I stay only 2-3 years it may not be worth it. Looks there are enough threads on starting a business here that I don’t need more help with that.
The business registration issue is worth asking someone knowledgeable about. We had a brief discussion here:
It’s true that the government is very unlikely to investigate alleged sham contracting if no-one files a complaint. Still, if you are an employee your rights and obligations for income tax, labor insurance, health insurance, and employment insurance are different from those of a contractor. Even if you never have health issues etc., you will need to file tax returns.
Registering your own business will count in your favor if you ever have to defend your status as a contractor. If you ask the Ministry of Labor for an explanation of employment vs. contracting, they will basically say an employee is a subordinate*, and a contractor is not. It’s easier to argue that a business-to-business relationship has only a minimal degree of subordination. If you’re interested, see the Civil Code: employment is “hire of services”, not “hire of work”. There’s also “mandate”, “publication”, etc.
*personal subordination, economic subordination, and group subordination; also, the requirement to perform work personally instead of farming it out to a third party is often cited
It all comes down to what you mean by “digital nomad”?
Are you providing digital services to clients outside of Taiwan while living in Taiwan?
or
Are you providing digital services to local Taiwanese clients?
Another thing to consider is if you have “all” your overseas payments sent to a Taiwan based bank account you will be liable to applicable local banking/tax laws. Once there is a local banking record of transfers you may raise some flags…but if you are only planning to stay in TW for 2-3 yrs. it might be wise to have those offshore payments paid via PayPal or Stripe (for example) and only transfer needed living expenses into the Taiwan system. Also, remember any funds you transfer into the TW system will eventually be needed to be transferred out, when you leave, creating another paper trail. And “bank transfers” are not cheap!
As you (@yyy) mentioned in the other thread, it seems individuals providing some professional services do not need to resister as business.They are exempt from business tax.
Article 3 The definition of sale of services is the supply of services to others or the provision of goods for the use of others for a consideration with the exception of professional services offered by practitioners and services rendered by individuals in employment.
Article 6 defines t.he term “practitioner” as used in Paragraph 2 of Article 3 of the Act
A monthly turnover of NT$200,000 is the threshold to exempt from issuing government uniform invoice (統一發票), but the practitioners are exempt from it too.
adding to that, i use china trust bank and send my living costs here every month. i keep the rest of my money in my banks back home. which works out fine because the banks here dont really deal with paypal and as far as i know i don’t even have an online banking option.
@astute
The former. I don’t mind all the fees and don’t want to give the Canadian government any reason to treat me as a resident, so it kinda has to be local banking. Most of the money would be put into (probably) offshore investment accounts as well so there won’t be anything to transfer later. Or would opening an HK account work too? I’ll be traveling there in about a week.
@tando
Neat, better rates for my clients then. I’ll discuss it more with an accountant later but thanks for the info.
@BHL4life
I know at the very least the post office bank has online banking but it’s activex crap (for “security”) and requires card reader. I never use it because of this.
its cool i’ve not needed it yet. money usage here isn’t very digital anyway. if it was like back home where i could just SWIPE! to pay for everything it might be a different story but things are old school here in that area.