For more than three years, we’ve had a vibrant thread on the Gold Card. A card that hundreds of people now hold, thanks to hours and hours of effort from our community
The thread is now about 1000 posts long, and despite being full of amazing information is beyond comfortable reading length @marcopoloTW, @alvin and I, along with some other Gold Card holders found some spare time to make:
taiwangoldcard.com - an unofficial, volunteer-run FAQ site for those applying for the Gold Card & holders of the card.
It’s quite scrappy at the moment (ideas and feedback please!), but I hope it’ll end up as a reasonably readable way for new folks to find out the more ‘standard’ answers. There’s also a wizard so people can find out how they qualify.
The site is built on “open source” principles, so anyone is welcome to contribute. Otherwise, continue to ask about the gold card below!
Any idea where this form is? Last year I remember I saw a “gold card” check box in the Alien e-filing software, this year it seems to elude me - same as the “special form” mentioned above…
This is amazing. Impressive work! Must have taken ages to out together. I definitely owe you some drinks if and when we make it out there! And great timing for me. Despite the superb writing in the thread, my eyes were starting to glaze as I neared the 300th post :-). Just about to hit submit on the application. Will this be a sticky?
Thanks for your kind feedback! We couldn’t have done it without all of you. If you have any ideas about what’s missing or how you’d improve things they are most welcome.
On e-Filing, one potential trap: I don’t know, but it’s possible that the tickbox may only be in the windows application. In the windows application, if I remember correctly, it was on the tab where all of the ‘income’ items appear, and it was somewhere near the top of the screen.
Thank for making the FAQ! Super useful to have the info all in one place. As one of the people who had once scrolled through 700 posts, having this will be great for future applicants. Tried the wizard and it also summarized the different category options quite nicely.
Looking forward to joining the Gold Card Network if/when my application is approved. Looks Iike it will provide some valuable resources and networking opportunities.
Thanks @marcopoloTW! I don’t have my gold card yet (just submitted the application and hesitating to push the “pay button”) so did not try to join the network.
I’m still confused about the tax situation while working with a foreign (American) company in Taiwan. Anyone know firsthand about this?
If I make 100% of my income as an American citizen working remotely in Taiwan with a Gold Card, what would the approximate taxes look like in Taiwan and the US? And what would be the difference between staying in Taiwan 330+ days vs. going back and forth for months at a time? It seems I would need to work with an accountant, but I’d like to get a ballpark idea of what I’m entering into before starting.
BTW, my income is not greater than $3M NTD, so that rule doesn’t seem to apply to me.
Only repeating what I read here on the forum: If you perform the work in Taiwan (even working for a remote client), it is considered “Taiwanese income” from a taxation standpoint. However, some argue that it is very common among Taiwanese people to simply not report their overseas income to save taxes as the authorities seem to lack enforcement in that regard.
But I assume that if you want to renew your Gold card and don’t pay taxes in Taiwan despite living there, it’s probably not a very promising situation…
So I think what you need to clarify with an accountant mostly if it’s an advantage for you to pay taxes in the US or not (like which tax rate is higher or lower? Any other advantages maybe like social security, …?). Then you might be able to figure out under which circumstances you are actually exempt from paying US taxes (I think there are some requirements - and paying taxes somewhere else and not being in the US for too many days a year are probably a requirement, I’d guess).
So depending on how long you stay in the US and in Taiwan each year, you might actually have some “creative leeway” about your tax situation.
Looking on how to get in contact with the National Immigration Agency Re: Gold Card Status. I took my passport to the TOR in London and they did the passport inspection. That was a week ago. My status has not changed from “Passport Submission…” I would like to find someone that I can get feedback on the rest of the process/timing. I contacted the people in the Dept. of Labor (Mr. Huang) and they sent me on a wild goose chase.
From the official contact list, choose the one under Employment Gold Card Permits for Foreign Special Professionals → Ministry of Interior, just above Mr Huang. NIA is under the Ministry of Interior, and those folks work for NIA. If the passport inspection was done and the system just hasn’t been updated (this happens sometimes), they should be able to help.
However, the passport inspection is conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If there was an issue with the passport inspection and this is why it isn’t updating, then call that contact instead. Start with NIA though.
