You don’t necessarily need an accountant for this, especially if you’re trying to avoid spending unnecessary money. Taxes in Taiwan are trivially easy to calculate, and you should be able to find relevant threads using the search function.
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You do if you’re trying to figure out how you can pay less tax, especially if he’s in a higher bracket.
TL, you don’t really know anything about this, do you? So maybe stop trying to “correct” people who know more than you.
From what OP has written, their situation isn’t that complicated - it’s similar to mine and those of others here who deal with their own taxes every year.
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So you’re saying he can’t reduce his tax burdens in any way? Which is why it’s useless to consult an accountant?
What I’m saying is that:
(i) There are other threads on here that OP can read to understand the process of filing taxes for freelance income derived from overseas clients.
(ii) The tax situation described isn’t that complicated to handle by oneself in Taiwan.
(iii) You don’t need to get involved in yet another conversation you don’t know very much about.
Even if the advise is to consult a professional which he clearly is looking for?
Yes.
As already stated, OP’s tax situation isn’t that complicated, and a reasonably intelligent person should be able to figure it out based on information given in other threads. I’m usually able to calculate mine accurate to the nearest dollar, for example. It’s not difficult. The tax office staff themselves are usually quite helpful, and for a relatively simple situation like this a tax professional isn’t going to have some magic trick to massively reduce OP’s tax liability. What they will do is charge a fair amount for their service, and OP has said they’re wanting to reduce what they need to pay.
In any case, what I wrote (not directed at you) was that they don’t necessarily need an accountant. If they want an accountant, they can obviously get one, but in my opinion it’s unnecessary if they’re willing to do a bit of reading and it’ll likely work out as more expensive for them. In other words, you don’t need to “correct” me, because I’m not interested in getting into a back and forth with you when you don’t know anything about the topic.
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Andrew, I get your point and I read all the topics on the subject here.
There is a lot of conflicting information. If a tax attorney/consultant isn’t very expensive, then it might make more sense to employ the services of one. What I’m paying is for peace of mind and clarity. When I go to do this, in May, I want to have as much control over the outcome as possible, not fumble at any questions they might ask me.
I’m not sure which threads you’ve read, but these ones and the ones linked therein may be useful starting points (there are others too):
The range of prices you mentioned in the original version of your post are similar to those I had in my head (I’m not sure from where though - probably discussions on here and/or Facebook groups, and they may be way off).
That is, from several thousand for a local accountant who isn’t all that familiar with freelancers working for overseas clients (I suspect that’s the norm here, and it wasn’t all that long ago that even tax offices here were giving incorrect guidance on what to do about this kind of income, i.e., counting it as AMT) to say NT$20k for one of the companies targeting foreigners and charging them a premium for it. Again, take these numbers with a grain of salt, but they’re what I have in my head.
If I’ve correctly understood your situation, I wouldn’t expect either of these to be able to significantly reduce your tax liability on freelance income from overseas. When I said it’s easy, what I meant is that you can basically sum up your income for the year and substract the exemptions and deductions. There aren’t that many of these - basically the standard ones that everyone gets, which vary with your number of dependents and stuff - and details can be found online or in threads here. Then apply the appropriate tax rate depending on what bracket your taxable income is in, and that’s about it.
What I’d suggest is totaling all this up closer to May and asking questions at the time if anything is unclear. There are some possible ambiguities like whether you should take the standard or itemized deduction and things that might vary with your line of work, but it’s really not all that complicated. It can be a bit intimidating the first time, but personally I don’t find the tax software all that bad, and if as you say you want to have as much control over the outcome as possible it’s in your own interest to understand as much as you can (again, for some of these things even the tax office and specialists etc. don’t always give 100% accurate advice anyway).
The tax office here also tends to be a bit more flexible than those in some other countries, e.g., with respect to what documentation is needed for overseas freelance income. It’d be annoying and expensive to spend a load of time and money getting everything notarized (as written in the rules) then finding out you could have got away without bothering (as in my case).
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Wow, thank you for taking the time to explain everything in such detail for me. That’s certainly a lot to think about.
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This may be helpful:
https://www.ntbt.gov.tw/English/multiplehtml/b5c4ff45678046ef862a27dd1d085d29
You could take all your statements to the Tax office once filing starts. Ask their kind help and you should be fine. The one thing you may want to decide in advance is whether to do standard or itemized deductions. If you want itemized deductions you will need more documentation. I too advise downloading the tax e-filing application for the latest year and trying out some values and seeing how the calculations work. If you have a lot of income then try to find some old people and family members to add as dependents.
It’s a good idea, but if I remember correctly the tax software (at least on PC) doesn’t let you do very much until the period you’re supposed to be using it (May 1-31). I think it throws up an error message at the part where you need to sign in using your NHI card or whatever.
I am quite sure there are ways around that. You should be able to sign in locally without the NHI card. For calculation purposes that should be fine.
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Can someone explain to me a few things about the tax calculator?
- Income from freelancing goes into other income or wages?
- If I’m not married yet with a person, can she be a dependent?
- When entering “exemptions - taxpayers, spouse, dependents,” do I enter 1 or 2 IF I can have a person I’m not married with as a dependent.
My biggest question is about “other income” vs “wages”. There’s a 30,000 TWD difference between them so…
I’ve always done it as overseas salary/wages (code 5F) (mostly - some of mine is also gaofei (code 9B), but that’s another story). There might be situations where it falls under professional practice income (code 9A), which I think has a tax rate on the order of 20% but more possible deductions, but that would depend on the work you do. You can probably find threads on here about this category.
I’m not sure what “other income” means here, but I think it’s probably not the right one.
Someone else should confirm, but I think the answer to that is no. I think it’s just spouses and children etc. Parents too, if you’re supporting them, but I’m not sure if they’re included in that bit or a separate deduction. (There are for sure threads on this too, it just doesn’t affect me so I haven’t looked into it that much.)
I think it’s just 1 person if you’re filing as a single person with no dependents. If I remember correctly (and I might not be), once you’re married (next year?) there’s some option of filing as a single person or with your spouse for the first year or so, but that won’t apply until you’re married (again, this isn’t something I’ve looked into very much and would be a good idea for you to check the relevant threads or wait for confirmation from someone else).
Would I be correct in assuming it’s higher for “other income”?
I’m a marketing professional, for all that matters.
Regarding dependents - I helped my mother with money, via PayPal, monthly. That should count, right?
Yes, for other income it’s $30,000 more than for salaried income. When I say other income, I mean the tab found in this calculator here:
I’d use the app you’ve suggested but I’m using an iPad Pro, not a Windows machine… so I need to find a laptop to borrow.
I’d consider that “salary and wages”. Not a tax advisor. 
(IMO, there’s some amount of discretion here because of how poorly defined freelance work, especially overseas freelance work, is in Taiwan. I suspect if you filed it as salary/wages it would be fine, and if you filed it as professional practice income (and paid more taxes) it’d also be fine and nobody at the tax office would try to convince you otherwise.)
I’m not really sure about all the requirements here. Some reading material for you:
Can’t attach PDFs here, so I sent you a PM with the official list of documentation required for overseas income, dependents, etc.
Is there any business expense you could claim? This can reduce your tax liabilities.
Ignore my post…