Now that both kids will be in school, i have freedom!
I plan to learn Chinese which will take 2 or 3 hrs a day (depending on the school). Now i wonder what i can do with the rest of my time. My questions are…
Im on a spousal arc. Am i allowed to work?
Is it legal for me to give private English lessons? How many students can i tutor 1:1 legally? How do i get students?
How do i find a language exchange?
Any ideas on what i can do from 1 to 3pm… for example are there groups that get together? Hobby classes? Activities? How to find friends?
Work permits for part time jobs are now available for the spouses of foreign professionals who do Class A professional and technical work . . . (read the rest of the post below to see if you qualify)
Yes, if you’re married to a Taiwanese citizen you’re fine.
Edit, leaving this one blank too.
(Leaving blank, I can’t answer this. Except, if you want to find students you’ll need to promote yourself and reach out to the local community. At least, that’s how most cram schools acquire new students.)
Tealit.com has a language exchange section that’s mildly active. There’s a couple other options, PM me if you’re interested, I’d rather not have random internet lurkers clogging up the other LE venues I use.
Seriously, that’s one of the most common questions here. How do I find friends? Easy answer, you don’t. Long answer, you join community groups on Facebook, meetup, and other websites relevant to your location and interests and then be very patient. There’s plenty to enjoy here as an independent person, too.
Now that I’ve said this much, I’ll add a little disclaimer. This is my personal advice/experience and I’m not an expert on any of these matters. I’m saying this because there’s always at least on person to respond and disagree completely using some extremely obscure or irrational information.
Edited out #2. If there’s anyone I’d trust with information on these matters it would be @yyy . I wrote this at 1AM and should’ve taken a little longer putting my thoughts together. Everything else should still hold, though. Cheers.
If we imagine for a moment that you have open work rights, then @Throwaway, where’s the requirement to register a business? (Personal income is subject to the Income Tax Act whether it flows through a business or not.)
Great, I’m glad to hear a spousal arc can let me work. Ill start with Chinese classes and hopefully get some friends there.
As for tealit, ill try that. If that doesn’t work then ill likely pm you in Sept.
Thanks!
This part may be applicable to many cases, though.
Article 5
The following small-sized businesses shall be exempted from registration in accordance with this Act:
Vendors.
Family agriculture, forestry, fishery, animal husbandry businesses.
Family handiwork businesses.
Lodging businesses.
Businesses who’s amount of sales per month does not reach the minimum taxable sales.
The small-sized businesses referred to in item 2 and Item 3 of the preceding paragraph shall be limited to businesses operated by himself/herself or mainly operated by himself/herself although some employees are hired in such business.
Does an individual performing services independently without a fixed place of business constitute a sole proprietorship? I assume the answer is no, but I’m willing to stand corrected.
If a business is deemed to exist, the next question is what the tax threshold is for a business in the education industry (as in Subpar. 5).
Nothing written by my worthless self should be considered legal advice, but my worthless self thanks Honorable Throwaway nonetheless.
I don’t know, and the link below is not directly related, but it seems an individual performing services independently can be a solo proprietorship.
I think it is reasonable that if sales per month reach the threshold, the business should be registered.
An individual who offers professional services or conducts tutoring business as a sole proprietor is not allowed to claim his/her salary or daily cost of meals as business expenses in the tax return.
The National Taxation Bureau of Taipei (NTBT), Ministry of Finance indicated that a sole professional practitioner or a sole owner of tutoring business is not allowed to claim his/her salary or daily cost of meals as business expenses. The NTBT explained that according to Subparagraph 2, Article 18 of the “Regulations for Examination of Professional Practice Income ”, a sole professional practitioner is not entitled to claim any salaries paid to himself/herself as business expenses. However, if it is a joint partnership other than a sole proprietor that carries on the aforementioned business and each partner’s salary has been specified in the partnership agreement, which is not in excess of the mandatory salary standard of the same business concerned, each partner’s salary can be claimed as business expenses. Moreover, according to the Explanatory Decree No. 32701 on April 26, 1978 enacted by the Ministry of Finance, a sole practitioner’s daily cost of meals is not an allowable expense when computing the business income due to the fact that it is personal living expenses. The regulations mentioned above shall also apply to the sole owner of tutoring business. While auditing a tax return of the business of a sole professional practitioner, the NTBT found that the practitioner’s salary expense of NT$800,000 and daily cost of meals of NT$21,600 were included in the tax return, which violated the aforesaid regulations. The NTBT, therefore, excluded such expenses. The NTBT called on that taxpayers who are sole practitioner or sole owner of tutoring business shall follow Article 18 of the “Regulations for Examination of Professional Practice Income” when claiming salary or cost of meals expenses so as not to be subjected to additional tax due.
If providing services independently were the same thing as being a business, I reckon the tax people would be chasing professionals around. So I tried searching EY appeals and Supreme Administrative Court decisions for violations of the Business Registration Act, but I didn’t find any cases that match what we’re talking about here.
Forumosan professionals are of course welcome to share their tax and registration adventures with us.
@yyy is right. I found the following two laws say professional practitioners do not need to be registered as a business, and exempt from business tax.
Value-added and Non-value-added Business Tax Act: Paragraph 2 of Article 3
Enforcement Rules of Value-added and Non-value-added Business Tax Act: Article 6
It certainly implies that, more clearly in the Chinese version, but it doesn’t actually state it outright.
提供勞務予他人，或提供貨物與他人使用、收益，以取得代價者，為銷售勞務。但執行業務者提供其專業性勞務及個人受僱提供勞務，不包括在內。
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.
本法第三條第二項所稱執行業務者，指律師、會計師、建築師、技師、醫師、藥師、助產師（士）、醫事檢驗師（生）、程式設計師、精算師、不動產估價師、物理治療師、職能治療師、營養師、心理師、地政士、記帳士、著作人、經紀人、代書人、表演人、引水人、節目製作人、商標代理人、專利代理人、仲裁人、記帳及報稅代理人、書畫家、版畫家、命理卜卦、工匠、公共安全檢查人員、民間公證人及其他以技藝自力營生者。
The term “practitioner” as used in Paragraph 2 of Article 3 of the Act means a lawyer, certified public accountant, architect, technician , physician, pharmacist, registered professional midwife (registered midwife), medical technologist (technician), programmer, actuary, real estate appraiser, physical therapist, occupational therapist, dietitian, psychologist, professional land registration agent, bookkeeper, author, broker, scrivener, performer, maritime pilot, program producer, trademark agent, patent attorney, arbitrator, bookkeeping and tax return filing agent, painting or calligraphy artist, printmaker, diviner, artisan, public safety inspector, notary public, and any other person who makes a living through skills or art.
). Would you mind quoting the full text?