Recently I began a new job at a school, whom I don’t have an ARC with (I have my ARC with another school). Now they are telling me they will tax me on my income anyways because they have to claim to the government their business’s income vs. costs; and since they have a certain income, they will have to pay a certain amount of tax, which means taxing ALL teachers the 6% regardless of ARC status with them or not. (I have NEVER encountered this situation before in all the other schools I have ever worked for in Taiwan without an ARC. As far as my experience and knowledge of other’s goes; if you don’t have an ARC with the school you work for, you don’t pay the tax!)
My other boss (whom I DO have an ARC with) said that this would be problematic for me to later claim my taxes… AND that it is illegal for the school to do that (since she and I think that they just really want to pocket the money for themselves).
IS IT INDEED ILLEGAL TO TAX TEACHERS LIKE THIS, EVEN THOUGH THEY DON’T HAVE AN ARC WITH THE SCHOOL?
If you know, please let me know. And if you can even find documented proof of this anywhere on the web, or some other place, would you please lead me to the link so I can print it out and show it to them?
I just want to know, not necessarily stating how I feel about it… So anyways, now that the obvious has been pointed out, I still ask the same question as per my initial post.
You can pay a foreigner and tax them but the rate ia 20%. Now I heard this 2+ years ago, so I don’t know if it has changed. They had an English teacher that came to there company one hour a week and they did pay taxes on him at 20%.
If I was in the situation I would look at like this:
Are they giving me tax receipts
Yes- Accept job
No- The is my pay-6% better than I would get somewhere else?
In response to Okami; as far as I always knew that 20% is the initial 6 month tax payment for all new foreigners to Taiwan. I already paid that long ago at a school I had an ARC with. Now I am suppoosedly on 6%…
The question still remains, as per Tetsuo, How can they tax someone who isn’t officially ‘working’ there? And is it legal to do so?
Also, if I save my tax receipts, as per Bu Lai, what shall I be doing with them in the future (and when exactly?) if they are illegally taxing me, while I am illegally working there?
Ok, I’ll try to give a more helpful answer. Before people married to Taiwanese citizens were allowed to work, the company would “spend” your wages on some fictious services, but that money is still leaving the company and going through the books, so they had to pay tax on it, but not income tax, because it’s not someone’s income, oh no, definately not, no foreigners working here, guv, honest, is that your hong bao I just dropped ?
The Tax people don’t give a shit if you are working illegally or not. They just want the taxes. This is why in the old days you would either have to prove you weren’t working in order to get your tax stamp to leave the country or pay the taxes on what they thought you made in order to get the tax stamp to leave the country.
Having dealt with the very efficient and well informed Taiwan tax authority on 2.5 years of my being in Taiwan without a job. I can assure you that they will get what they want out of you if you follow their rules.
Exactly. If they insist on taxing you (which is unusual for this sort of work), then insist on getting the tax receipts. If they charge 20%, then you will get the difference betweent that and 6% refunded. You should even get a large chunk of the 6% refunded. The IRS won’t give a shit about anything except those tax slips.
So you should definately ask for tax receipts. And you can get the money back. I understand that you are not bitching about this, just asking. It is always good to know whether your bosses are playing with you or not.
Off the topic. Does anyone know how many hours you have to work to get an ARC? I hear you can have up to 3 schools on your ARC.
Postmodernfunk, It is hard to answer your question because you and your employer are already breaking the law by having you work without a permit. The fact that he follows the law in one instance but breaks it in another is confusing, but him paying taxes is not the illegal part. The core of the question though is how he can pay taxes without admitting that you are working illegally, and hence the likelihood that he isn’t paying taxes after all. In which case it would be illegal to withold taxes but not pay them. As long as he pays the tax and you actually get a tax certificate, the only thing illegal is the lack of a work permit.
No, you no longer have to have a tax certificate to leave the country.
No, a foreigner can only legally work for a single employer unless you are on a joining family resident visa or have a permanent ARC with an open work permit. There is no requirement of a minimum number of hours worked to get an ARC, but employers still need to comply with the same employment laws regarding minimum wage, etc.
Edit: looks like I’m wrong. Article 53 of the employment services act states that one can have multiple employers as long as each one has a permit for the employee. Has anyone actually done this?
Of course it is illegal. Who in their right mind will work at a school without paying taxes or having an ARC there? Nobody. With tsunamis, earthquakes, typhoons, dodgy food…NT$ 50 000 is most definately enough to cause foreigners to flock here.
Is this true? Suppose, for the sake of argument, that the company is in fact giving the withheld taxes to the government in the OP’s name. The government (ie., the tax office) then has proof that she is working illegally. Won’t they then fine and deport her? Or do you think she could actually file her tax return, honestly declaring the illegal income, get some of it refunded, all without any legal problems?
Traditionally, the tax authorities only cared about getting their money and did not contact immigration. AFAIK, that’s still the case. BUT, I have had both of my employers and a few clients contact me recently to get my PARC number for their records–some command has apparently come down from on high telling everyone to start using ARC/PARC numbers as our IDs and not the old taxpayer IDs they constructed out of your birthdate and last name.
Does this mean they are going to get serious about people working illegal second jobs? I doubt it, but you never know. The trend is to stricter enforcement of employment laws.
