My boss wants to under report my earnings, so they can pay less health/labor insurance, but that would also mean under reporting my earnings for tax purposes, which I absolutely do not want to do. I don’t want to commit tax fraud, regardless of how easy it is to get away with here in Taiwan. Other than breaking the law, there are other reasons to want to honestly report my earnings. What if I want to get a mortgage or credit card in the future? If my boss reports the minimum possible earnings, then it’s gonna be hard for me to do those things as the bank will think I’m poor, when I actually earn a lot.
My wife, and her parents told me “that’s just the way things are in Taiwan”, which I understand.
I told my boss I want to report my earnings honestly, but she said that if I do that, the company won’t be able to afford the health insurance payment, which sounds like total BS to me, but I can’t argue it.
My boss is otherwise a very nice women, and I really like my job, so I don’t want to quit.
I say that means they can’t afford to do business, period.
Fwiw though, laobao premiums are not your responsibility. You need to be registered (i.e. co-operate with your employer registering you) if your job falls into the category of compulsory laobao, as most do. If you refuse, the penalty for you is just $500. Underreporting results in that quadruple payment I mentioned, but the employee is not penalized. If you do claim a laobao benefit, you can’t get the full amount unless you sue your employer, because the BLI will only pay according to the reported salary.
I think jianbao is similar.
When it comes to plain old income tax, report the correct salary when the time comes, and to hell with your employer’s hurt feelings. I’d be quietly looking for a new job if I were you.
OP, how much difference does that make? Less than 5k NTD?
A suggestion- Can you take the extra money as a “gift”? If so, find out what the taxation rules are about gifts here. I think big companies give their employees gift/food/travel allowance for which tax rules might be different. Find it out if that helps your case.
If nothing else, you can donate the gift money to a charity and get some tax deduction, if applicable.
This is so common here so much that they don’t believe they are doing anything wrong. The lawbreakers justify it in their mind so much that they can’t tell right from wrong even for more serious crimes.
I believe that , especially younger employees, don’t see the longer term issues . With new rules on pensions etc, larger contributions may well benefit them far more that the small short term reduced payments would .
Haha , you cynic you. You have a point ,but the threat you perceive at the largest, I presume, would be that of China. in that case I would imagine the “authorities” would honour Pensions , or face huge , avoidable, dissent. Wait…what am I saying ?
I contributed for decades to Government Pension schemes, only to see my Country as about the worst developed Country pay-out .
Imagine you are 25 years old and live in Taiwan. Who knows what will happen in the next 40 years? Will there still be a Taiwan? Will there still be a Communist Party in China? How will the whole region look like? You can’t be sure, right? So you save as much as you can (=no taxes), invest, diversify and try to take care of everything yourself.
PS: I don’t think taxes=theft, just trying to provide my impression of the local mindset.
