Gold Card Survey - Why Taiwan?

Legal Visa & Residency
1

I have been interested in the Gold Card Visa since it’s inception, but my life circumstances won’t be in place to apply for a few years yet. However I have noticed a lot of new people on Formosa asking questions about the Gold Card Visa.

So why are you applying now (mid-late 2020) for the Gold card? Is it something you have thought about for a long time, and it just happens to be now that you got everything organized? Or are you leaving your country due to Covid and the relative safety of Taiwan (a Covid “refugee”)? Or for some other reason (ability to freelance on the Gold card, etc)?

I understand that it can be a combination of any of the below choices, so you can choose more than one answer.

Feel free to discuss.

  • I have been thinking about moving to Taiwan for a long time
  • I am a Covid “refugee”
  • Other

0 voters

1 Like
2

Was planning on moving to Taiwan on a tourist visa and doing visa runs, but the border is closed to tourists. The Gold Card is one way still enter the country, plus it means I don’t have to do visa runs and I can work remotely or even work for (or start) a Taiwanese company.

I actually applied for the Gold Card because it seemed like a good idea (no visa runs!), and then 2 days later I realized it would also allow me to enter the country despite the border being closed to tourists.

1 Like
3

A sort of digital nomad thing? How long were/are you planning on staying in Taiwan?

4

I’m not on the card, but guess from posts on this forum that many people who have been here with visa runs for a long time now want residency due to covid19 restrictions.

1 Like
5

Yeah, but many of the visa run types don’t typically make over 160,000 NT$ / month, but I guess some do.

6

"thinking about moving for a long timeC
I became interested when I first heard about it a year or two ago. I decided to apply this year so that we can spend time a month or two in Taiwan this fall since my kid will be doing school remotely anyway. I plan to move to Taiwan full time soon, but probably not for another 6 months or so (can’t move over there till 6 months after I get the dogs’ rabies titers certified). I will use my time there this fall to scout business opportunities in case my plan to work remotely for my current employer doesn’t work out.

1 Like
7

I picked “thinking about moving for a long time.”

Really it is simply the best pathway for us to move to the city (Taipei) that we have decided is the best place for us for the next stage in life. If I do not get approved, we’d almost certainly go another, more arduous route to obtain ARC.

1 Like
8

Yes, either as a digital nomad, or I may simply take the time off and not work. Planning on staying around 6 months, maybe longer. If I stay longer I may try to bootstrap a start-up because my savings will give me more runway in Taiwan than they would in the USA.

9

The biggest reason one would to apply for gold card vs regular arc are taxes.

You will only get taxed for half your income over 3mil for 3 years, so your top tax rate is effectively cut from 40% to 20%.

2 Likes
10

I was lucky enough to live in Taiwan from 2007-2010. Lived the friends I made and the overall working and living environment. Was looking for a place that had good and cheap healthcare, easy entry requirements (in the current environment) and stability. Taiwan offers all that and more. Literally stumbling upon this program is just a godsend at this point. As we know, it’s rather under the radar at this point, but I could see people that work on the island just picking up a Gold ARC to continue access to the island for their job roles.

2 Likes
11

The tax consideration is a good reason, yes, but that is a serious amount of money in Taiwan(who makes that in Taiwan exactly?).

Personally, I think the open work permit is the biggest reason. I will be coming to Taiwan after retiring from my current career, and while I might do something related, I want the flexibility to do whatever I want.

1 Like
12

It’s 3mil/year not per month.

13

Do you live in Taiwan? Just curious. How many people do you know who make over 250,000 NT$ per month whose jobs are based in Taiwan? I can think of only a very few people who I know of who make that much money. I guess as a Gold Card holder you might be pulling in US level salaries still - but in Taiwan, even among the foreign professional population, those who even make over 100,000 NT$ are few and far between.

2 Likes
14

With a gold card it seems like you could stack a couple part time jobs and consulting arrangements to add up to $160000 or more. Probably depends on connections and the industry, and how much you want to.work. But if I read that tax benefit correctly, the tax break does not work if you have had an ARC in the last, right?

15

I do live in Taiwan, but I don’t ask other people’s salaries as I consider it rude.

But, one can usually ballpark the salary based on the housing allowance(which most tend to max out) or their country of origin/previous posting

16

When I looked in to it, you can’t convert to gold card if you already have arc(or was it that just the tax benefit was unavailable?)

17

The fact that you know people that have housing allowances says that you run in some very high earning circles, which I would be tempted to say applies to only a very small percentage of foreigners living in Taiwan, but that is just my opinion.

3 Likes
18

You are probably right, it’s applies to rather few.

But, if you exclude migrant workers and those from native English speaking countries(ie teachers) the % goes waaaay up.

If you’re from eg Switzerland or Austria and get a job offer in Taiwan, you probably are pretty good at whatever it is you do and get paid correspondingly…

1 Like
19

To get any benefit from the tax break you must make more than 250,000NT / month. And yes, you can’t have had tax residence in Taiwan for the past 3 or 5 years, iirc.

1 Like
20

That tells you the “caliber” they are hoping to attract with this program.