Hi there, there are a few topics on this subject, but they are pretty old, so I’m looking for 2024 information.
This 18% for first 6 months seems like a dumb rule and need some clarification surrounding it.
1, Do all companies take 18% of the your salary for the first 6 months of EVERY year you live in Taiwan?
2, Is the process of getting a tax rebate easy and seamless?
TheBadger
Some companies do. Many know it’s bullshit and only withhold the resident tax rate all year.
Banks however 
Tax declaration is easy. You can go to the tax office and they will do everything for you.
Later the overpaid tax is transferred to your bank account.
Taking action against Taiwan's definition of domicile/residence relating to foreigners
It is
They don’t
It is
According to Article 88 of the Income Tax Act, Taiwan’s tax authority delegates the responsibility for tax collection to the employer, making them the withholding tax agent. If the employer fails to withhold the required 18% tax from a foreign employee’s salary, and the employee leaves the country before reaching 183 days of residence in a tax year, the employer becomes liable for any unpaid taxes that should have been withheld on behalf of the foreign employee.
This is why the company withholds 18% of the employee’s salary for the first six months, ensuring that the employee qualifies as a tax resident before adjusting the tax rate.
https://www.songjer.com/withhilding-tax-salary-rent
https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=G0340003
Yeah, we know, so it’s because of a few grifters who did that that a few companies (and banks) withhold like that.
I don’t care as I don’t have a local employer, but with banks @Andrew and I had quite a fight and it seems something is moving.
Between an incredibly new apparent interpretation by the tax bureau about how to fill CRS and the future inclusion of tax domicile issue in the white paper by the European chamber, that will be apparently fixed
Just to be clear, I haven’t asked the tax bureau about how to complete CRS forms per se, just the tax withholding statements. Related but definitely different, I would say. I think there are three kind of steps here:
(1) How the customer completes the CRS form.
(2) How the bank records the tax residency data for the customer (based on (1) plus some prejudice and misunderstanding — as we know, the customer’s self-certification isn’t necessarily followed).
(3) How the bank withholds tax on interest and completes the withholding forms (based on (2) plus a little more prejudice and misunderstanding). I think these are essentially internal to Taiwan, with little connection to CRS at this point.
Maybe getting banks to complete the withholding statements correctly might have some backwards effect on the CRS forms by promoting an understanding that foreigners can be solely tax-resident in Taiwan. But I think more work would be necessary to solve the CRS issue itself, along the lines of the National Taxation Bureaus/MOF unambiguously stating that foreigners can be solely tax-resident in Taiwan then filing FSC complaints when banks don’t follow that, citing Article 7 of the Financial Consumer Protection Act and Article 40 of the regulations about how CRS should be implemented (I think banks are overstepping their role here when it comes to foreigners). Maybe an MOI complaint too, but I think either of these would need to be supported by something clear from the tax office (what I’m trying to get now).
To my knowledge, nobody has filed an FSC complaint about this. I haven’t either, because I doubt it’d be useful without clarification from the tax office. The FSC would just push the complaint onto the bank to give a BS explanation. That would be the next step though, if whatever the tax office sends me doesn’t convince bank staff.
For me, I’ve never needed to fill out a false CRS form (after a lot of arguing), and the problems have been related to steps (2) and (3).
Yeah, that should be out soon, I think.
Let’s hold off our optimism for now… 