If a foreigner worked without permit before, but now already has a permit, will they be okay?

Legal Legal - Work
21

Not necessarily as they can write off taxes for the business. I had a friend work for a few years with no ARC. He returned to the USA to finish his degree and I did his tax refund for him. A few years later on he returned to Taiwan and got a work permit and ARC before getting married to a local lass.

22

Suggest you read this thread

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23

What do you mean by “write off taxes for the business”

24

Tax deductions for expenses.

25

Suggest just googling. There are various sites giving a basic overview of tax rules in Taiwan.

Point is that for people who are tax resident here, like in many countries, the first part of their income each year isn’t taxable. For Taiwan, that worked out as NT$423,000 in 2022 (off the top of my head, and for a single person with no dependents).

26

Yes but that’s a different situation. No one’s gonna dob in this guy…

27

My previous boss tried to tell the police I worked illegally for him. In front of me. The guy was so nutso that he was willing cut off his nose to spite his face.

I never worked for a minute without that work permit in hand.

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28

Worth keeping in mind: if applying for any kind of work-permit-based ARC, your status is assessed by NIA and WDA. Both have access to your immigration record. It’s not unheard of for these places to verify your CV or online presence against this record. I’ve seen people banned from Taiwan years after the fact. In a couple cases they’d since built a life here, but that didn’t matter.

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29

What you’re saying is hide all references to illegal work. Do not put six months working for a trading company on your CV.

30

In talking about these things, there’s a balance between providing full details of how the assessment works (i.e. assisting those flaunting the law) and demonstrating there is an assessment :slight_smile: What I’ve found in practice is that very few people attempting to obfuscate their work history have the capability to appropriately expunge everything. In many cases the act of obfuscation is what causes the detection :slight_smile:

31

Another win for people without Social Media.

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32

Wait, so he worked for the first restaurant without permit, and then he worked at the second place with permit, and someone didn’t like the owner of the second restaurant, and so reported the chef for working in the first restaurant without permit? Something doesn’t add up or I’m misunderstanding

33

That’s how it was. He was reported for working at a place without a work permit. Once the authorities confirmed that his ARC and work permit were cancelled and he had to leave Taiwan and was banned from re-entering for several years.

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34

Here is another case.

Judgment No. 1155 of the Supreme Administrative Court in 2018

The plaintiff worked before he got a work permit on a visitor visa. somehow authority found it out, and his work permit and ARC were canceled, and he had to leave Taiwan and was banned from re-entering for several years.

He appealed, and argued that it was an internship and not work, but was denied.

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35

Wait I meant. Someone had an issue with the owner of the second restaurant but instead reported the chef for working in the first restaurant?

36

Something along those lines yes. When I was living in Chiayi a Canadian chap reported me to the Foreign Affairs Police for working without an ARC. Now it’s true I didn’t have an ARC and in fact it had been cancelled. The FAP came along to take their 8 x 12 colour glossy photo’s of me teaching in a classroom. Right at 4pm when all the parents were coming to pick up their children. Was so embarrassing when I asked the FAP did they have jurisdiction over Taiwan citizens. Of course not they replied. But they told me they knew all the foreigners with ARC’s in Chiayi at the time as there were not many of them.

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37

That’s an incredibly…weird thing to happen

38

Used to be you got NT$10,000 reward from the government for every one you reported and were caught. Do one person a day Monday to Friday and make 200k a month. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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39

That’s pretty funny and also pretty insane, so a lot of people snitch on others to get the NT10,000 reward? Also how about students working without work permit issue, what happens to them? Is it more lenient on them or as harsh as foreigners working on a visitor visa?

40

An overseas student would be daft to work without a permit. It only costs them a few hundred NT.