Are bonuses taxable?

Are bonuses taxed if the company doesn’t lie to the tax bureau?

I believe so, they are part of your income.

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If its income, why would it not be? You need to work hard to prevent the government takinv a slice of your hard work. That seems basic baseline. Better to assume they will take a hefty fee for you doing everything until you get schooled up on retaining your actual pay to work ratio.

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That second part would be the bigger thing to consider. Did your employer actually report your bonus to the taxman?

Yes.

Guy

I think Spivvy’s right. A bonus is not always part of your wage/salary under employment law, but that is a separate question from whether or not it’s part of your income under tax law. Overtime pay up to a certain amount is tax free, but I don’t recall bonuses being tax free.

If in doubt, ask the tax office. :idunno:

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Roughly what amount would that be?

Iirc there’s a 函 from the Ministry of Finance about it, buried somewhere on their website. Possibly quoted somewhere on this website too. When you find the 函 database, search for 加班費 or maybe just 加班.

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Yes they are.

Which is unfortunate if you get your bonus at CNY and are taxed at the foreigner rate of 18% (I’m talking from experience).

Yup its taxable. I won the company lottery and even that was 20% taxable

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I believe that bonus is taxable as income from personal experience and by reading Articles 4 and 8 of the Income Tax Act together.

What is deeply frustrating and unfair is that we are taxed on bonus income but employers have been increasing the proportion of total compensation that is paid in bonuses for years now. This is a huge problem when it comes time to calculate ‘average wage’ for purposes such as employer pension contributins, severance, and units under the old retirement scheme because employers are able to get away with excuding bonus from these calculations by saying that the bonus is a gratuity like a tip.

Two decades ago, average wage comprised 73% percent of total compensation. Now it is has fallen to 66% and is typically much lower for people who make over NT$1 million.

Fixing this scam would be a great way to do something substantive about low pay but I have never heard a politican bring the issue up. I guess it’s too boring.

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If you receive Sogo coupons or win an iPhone at end of year party you will also be taxed on that.

I think employers prefer to give vouchers because those can be expensed and reduce the business’s taxes. :slight_smile:

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Blue book value?

Why not call it a gift? Or is that entering tax fraud territory?

Gifts are taxable :frowning:

Dang. I haven’t looked into that side at all. But if that’s the reality, gotta give it to them, they covered their bases. They made taxes low enough and regulations vague enough that people that can afford either enough money or time to hire an accountant, or figure it out themselves, to avoid loads if taxes. For the lazy, we just pay 2% on everything and move on. There is certainly a threshold where a company wants to opene up multiple small businesses to scape taxes. I find it all quite a waste of bandwidth, to be honest. But sometimes margins are narrow. And one needs to plan and save ahead for the future.

I did not get the extend of your message, especially this part. I think we pay our top tax-rate which is not 2% for most of us.

He is speaking from the perspective of a business operator, and not as a wage-earning peon like many of us here.

Guy

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It is easy to open a Ltd, pay 2 ish % and be a contractor.

People filling desk jobs are different. But if one really really wants to avoid it, be the “consultant” probably most of taiwans inflation is due to this consultant type issue, and the multi levels of middle men, which ironically pay less tax, get more government grants/projects and tend to have fewer costs :crazy_face: Taiwan is weird sometimes.