Health Insurance Deductions

Legal Taxes
1

I am not sure where I should put this, so if it needs to be moved to another forum, then I will repost.

I work at a large elementary school. My wife worked at the high school of the same school until last year, when she moved abroad. I will join her in July.

When she was here, deductions were taken from her salary for the health insurance of her and her mother. When she moved abroad, I asked her director to contact my school and have the deductions taken from my pay, which would result in me supporting my wife and her mother in addition to my son and of course, myself.

I waited for the following month’s pay, and nothing happened. There was no change in my pay. I went to the personnel officer by myself and told her what I had expected to happen, and she told me she’d fix it. I waited another month, but still no change.

I got a Taiwanese co-worker to help me, and that time they took copies of the Health Insurance cards of my wife and her mother. I waited, and nothing happened again. I went again to see the personnel officer, and I was told that a lump sum, back-dated to the point where payments stopped from my wife’s salary, would be taken in the new year. I waited until February, and nothing happened. They said to wait another month. Nothing happened.

I received in early March a pair of notices from the Tax Department concerning missing Health Insurance payments for my wife and her mother. I took these to school and the director of my department became involved. Copies were made and I was assured that deductions would be backdated and made from my next salary payment. However, nothing happened. My salary, after checking this month, is the same with no backdated payments.

My mother-in-law has to come to Taiwan for an operation in August, and I am kind of freaking out. I have had a very good relationship with my employers over the long time I have been there, but this is worrying. I am trying to decide whether I should go to the tax office to ask for help, or whether I should notify my school that I intend to do that if the situation isn’t resolved.

I was wondering if anyone can give me any advice on this. My wife thinks the school just doesn’t want to make the backdated payments and is stalling until I leave in July, which they know about. What can I do? Is the tax office even the right department to go to? Or should I go to the labor affairs office? I am not sure what to do.

Edit: I just got a pay slip which shows I am now supporting my wife and her mother, BUT no backdating was made. I could see when I checked my bank balance that my pay seemed the same, but my bank book was full, and I couldn’t update it to see exact amounts. Now I just have to worry about the backdating issue.

2

You could ask at your regional division of NHI.

https://www.nhi.gov.tw/English/Content_List.aspx?n=20A93E4CE83C5762&topn=ED4A30E51A609E49

3

You’re wife is right. The health insurance premiums really hit employers. I personally think employees should be responsible for a larger percentage.

4

What happens if they pick up the payments, but they’re not backdated? Like if my wife’s mom comes here and has an accident? Does it depend on all payments being up-to-date?

5

I don’t know. You should just call or go in and get it sorted next week. Make sure your school knows about it too. They’ll be more likely to comply faster.

6

I had a similar situation a few years back, I just went and paid the NHI directly, the university then paid me back the money they were supposed to pay NHI on my behalf (it took another 4 months to get the money, but that is because of the university being disorganized )
i assume your mother in law is Taiwanese ? or you managed somehow to get NHI for a foreign parent.

7

The pay slip which I mentioned earlier was put on my desk over the holiday. I didn’t actually see it until today. I was told that the deductions were on the pay slip and believed what I was told, hence my edit in my OP. I saw the pay slip today, and it’s exactly the same as last month’s pay slip, with no deductions. Apart from being frustrated with my own naivety, I now realize that there has either been a communication breakdown between the personnel department and the accounting department, or I have been lied to in order to stall further. I really hope the latter is not true because I have been treated really well by my school in the past, and it would be a shame if we were to part ways under a loss of trust on my part. I saw a photo of a message from the personnel department to my supervisor telling her that the deductions have been made. I will find out what went wrong tomorrow hopefully.

I tried the NHI website, but link I was given earlier had a PDF link, and when I clicked on it, I got a 404 error. I don’t speak Chinese, so I am going to have to my wife’s Taiwanese uncle to help if I get no answers tomorrow. He will be glad to help as it’s his Taiwanese sister (my mother-in-law) who is getting affected by this.

8

This got resolved last month, and I was given documentary evidence. Thank you for the advice.

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