Until recently I was doing some private classes for a company, cash in hand. Now the employer has changed its tone and wants to report me for tax purposes.
I did not have a work permit for this employment, and I am here on a student visa.
Has anyone else been in this situation and how was it resolved? Is there any advice you can give?
[quote=“Manny_Avatar”]Until recently I was doing some private classes for a company, cash in hand. Now the employer has changed its tone and wants to report me for tax purposes.
I did not have a work permit for this employment, and I am here on a student visa.
Has anyone else been in this situation and how was it resolved? Is there any advice you can give?[/quote]DO NOT give them your true name or your ARC number under any circumstances.
[quote=“Manny_Avatar”]Until recently I was doing some private classes for a company, cash in hand. Now the employer has changed its tone and wants to report me for tax purposes.
I did not have a work permit for this employment, and I am here on a student visa.
Has anyone else been in this situation and how was it resolved? Is there any advice you can give?[/quote]
Explain that you might get fined and they might get fined up to NT$750,000 if you get caught. And that you could get deported. Find a Taiwanese friend to accept the payment and pay the tax for them.
Thank you Feiren and Northcoast Surfer for your suggestions.
Unfortunately they already have a copy of my passport, so looks like I will have to go the way of Feiren’s suggestion.
This whole thing only came up because they wanted to know my entry and exit dates… otherwise I’d probably never have known they were filing, and they wouldn’t have known they were doing anything wrong.
Will post back later to let you know what happened.
Thanks again. 
What Feiren said.
The magic word in Chinese for Taiwan is “reNtoU” 人頭. It’s just someone with a local ID card who will claim that income as theirs, and pay the taxes. Any payments between you and that person are, well, between you and that person. Usually the “beneficiary” of this arrangement makes good on the tax money to the reNtoU, based on his/her normal tax bracket.
This word is a very VERY good one to know. I will add this to my already extensive vocabulary, ie. along with 謝謝 and 不好意思…
Let’s see if I can find the right person… and quick! 
Thanks ironlady.
Thank Feiren…he had the right answer. I just contribute the odd vocabulary word. It helped me, too, as I’m working on a game based on Chinese/Taiwanese culture, and this is a good item to include. It IS part of Taiwanese culture, after all!
As I understand it, they need an ARC number or a tax ID number to report taxes. They can’t report taxes against a passport. That’s why banks ask non-resident foreigners to go get an ID number from the NIA before they can open an account, so the bank can report the taxes on the “interest”.
Thanks everybody for the support. Just to let you know… once we let the employer know about the size of the possible fine it suddenly became a “miscellaneous” business expense.
Phew… I will definitely be more careful in the future… tell your friends!
[quote=“Manny Avatar”]Thanks everybody for the support. Just to let you know… once we let the employer know about the size of the possible fine it suddenly became a “miscellaneous” business expense.
Phew… I will definitely be more careful in the future… tell your friends![/quote]See? Ain’t that just amazin’? If it were an issue that only affected you, the Taiwanese boss wouldn’t give a shit. However, the moment he realized that this could turn into a shit sandwich for him and his business, then some action is taken! Taiwanese are only concerned with three people…“I’m juust lookin’ out for ME, MYSELF, and I!”. :roflmao: