If I work for myself as sole proprietor in my own offshore company, what is the tax rate?

As I understand it from this Wikipedia article, the tax rate would be only 12 % (500,001-1,130,000 NTD per year) if I stay in Taiwan as a non-resident for more than 3 months, working as sole proprietor in my own offshore company:

However, I’m not sure I interpret this correct, as it could be they regard my offshore company as a profit-seeking enterprise, in which case the tax rate would climb to 17 % for income above 120,000 NTD per year.

Furthermore, would I be able to legally work in my own company here as a non-resident, staying for more than 3 months per year (for example staying 1 year here, or even more)?

Although I think I am not allowed to be self-employed in Taiwan as a foreigner.

(As this is all hypothetical), you could go to the tax office and ask them these questions.
You would have nothing to worry about. You would not need to give them your ID (Say you didn’t bring it is they ask).
Then report back here with an update in case someone needs an answer who has a similar issue and can search and find your nice answer.

As far as the research I had done on many countries and taxation of such things I found this:

  1. You, by the laws of a lot of countries, become a taxable resident if you reside in a country for more than 183 days a year.
  2. If you live in, let’s say, 3 countries within a year and do not exceed the 183 days in any of them. You are usually a resident in your country of birth. You will need to confirm that with your home country’s tax regulations of course.
  3. In most countries your income gets taxed (based on residency), not your company’s income. Your company is a separate entity and has tax obligations in the country it was created.

The tax obligations for Taiwan may be a little bit different, but a good amount of the time you do not need to be a resident to be tax liable. For instance if your company is selling goods/services to local people then it must pay tax (this is research done on US business, so I am not sure how Taiwan handles those cases).

It matters what kind of job you perform, if it’s all online based and your money is circulating outside of Taiwan, you do not need to declare any of it to the local tax system as you are technically working outside of it. If you do need more answers on that, you may need to hit the books real hard or ask the local tax office as was suggested.

There are also some interesting posts that may answer your questions located here:

  1. Tax confusion for online work (staying more than 183 days) - #3 by simmy
  2. Tax being paid after 183 days
  3. Any form of compulsion for foreigners to file taxes here?

Best of luck in your ventures, we are rooting for your success :balloon:

P.S. please do not treat any of it as legal tax advice or as concrete knowledge of the matter, the taxation system is highly convoluted and is some times up for interpretation of the reader.