Hello
I’m considering setting up a representative office of my HK company here in Taiwan.
I would then get a work permit and an ARC, and access to NHI.
But before to proceed, one of the information I miss is how much I will have to pay for the NHI. Could someone help me here?
Cheers
Effective January 1, 2016, the insurance premium rate used for calculating the monthly premium for National Health Insurance has been lowered, from the previous 4.91% to the new rate of 4.69%.
You can learn more about how NHI premiums are calculated on the NHI website; this is a good place to start, follow links at the bottom for details
http://www.nhi.gov.tw/English/webdata/webdata.aspx?menu=11&menu_id=591&WD_ID=591&webdata_id=3153
While I’m sure the actual figure will depend on factors like salary, age and number of people covered, I pay about 3000nt per month (billed bi-monthly). That is me paying both my portion and the company’s portion out of pocket. I have my branch office paying me around the minimum as a foreigner to qualify for the ARC card.
Is that including the “2nd generation” fee?
How hard was it to set up a branch office and get an ARC?
It’s not particularly hard if you use an accountant to handle everything but you will need 500k NT for the first year and 3 million NT revenue for every subsequent year to maintain the branch and your ARC. Opening a corporate entity in TW also comes with a monthly paperwork filing obligation which can be time consuming and/or costly as well. Depending on your situation a representative office might be more suitable. I believe there are some lengthy threads about it somewhere on Forumosa if you want to handle everything yourself or an accountant can advise you on the best structure.