My company’s HR is telling me that since my December 2014 salary was paid in January 2015 (I get my salary on the 5th like in a lot of companies here), it counts as earnt in 2015 and shouldn’t be filed with 2014 earnings. This doesn’t makes much sense to me but I can’t find anything confirming or denying it (in English anyway) - does anyone know how these things work here?
Sadly they are right. What matters is the date of remittance. I got a separate tax slip for December.
Thanks bear. That’s a bummer - an extra month to pay 18% tax on. I didn’t think about that when I quit my job before the 183-day cut off line.
The date you quit your job doesn’t matter. The date you leave Taiwan matters. All you need is 183 days that you are physically present in Taiwan.
Same here in the USA. Some of my December money ends up being paid in Jan. And it counts towards the next year’s income. It’s when you get paid, not when you earned the money.
The date you quit your job doesn’t matter. The date you leave Taiwan matters. All you need is 183 days that you are physically present in Taiwan.[/quote]
Hi Abacus, I know that, and I will be staying in Taiwan more than 183 days this year. My company, however, doesn’t know if I’ll actually be staying or not, and is retroactively withholding the missing taxes to make up for the 18% (ie: my April salary was close to zero). Yes, I’ll get the money back eventually, but I’d rather have it now than in a year and a half.
Anyway, it’s not that big of a deal, just an oversight on my part.
That sucks but a good business would have been deducting 18% every year for the first 6 months. You should be able to file early though since you are leaving Taiwan. You will at a minimum need your flight info and I believe your termination paperwork but you won’t have to wait 1.5 yrs.
Well, to be fair to them they were doing me a favour by deducting only 5% - they didn’t expect me to quit. And I’m not leaving Taiwan, I’ll get another job here, but they don’t want to take the risk of me up and leaving before the 183 days limit. Can’t blame them really.