Is it legal for ARC holders to run a monetized Youtube channel in Taiwan?

I’ve done a lot of research on the topic on official websites as well as this forum, but haven’t gotten a clear answer (perhaps due to the fact that most laws regarding this issue was made before being an Youtuber was a thing)
My question is that Is it legal for ARC holders to run a monetized Youtube channel in Taiwan, since work outside of the work permit is illegal?
It seems like a gray area to me, since making videos alone is more like a hobby than a form of employment that affects local jobs in any way.
If it were illegal, that would be absurd, because that kinda infringes your right to express yourself on a legal platform while being paid what’s rightfully yours. Most travel vloggers would be breaking the law if that were the case. My channel which I started as a hobby is growing to the point where I might want to monetize it in the near future. If you’re a Youtuber in Taiwan, I would love to hear how to make sure that everything is legal Tax wise and Residency wise. Thank you!

How did you get your ARC?

Through my job as a teacher

Is it possible that authorities will care? No.

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What do you mean?

This would be very, very, very far down on their list of concerns.

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Seriously, don’t worry about it. Just tell people it’s your hobby, not your job! When it gets big enough to pay your salary, then is the time to start planning. Right now, it’s your hobby. Anyway, no one will know you make $$$ from your channel unless you tell them. Right?

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He wants to know if it’s legal
The light answer , you need to declare income if living here

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Unless your ARC is the type that makes you exempt from needing a work permit (what I believe Tempo was getting at), the fact that you have an ARC is neither here nor there.

Questions:

  1. Do you have open work rights? (Apparently you don’t.)

  2. If you don’t have open work rights, does running the channel constitute “work” under Art. 43 of the Employment Service Act?

That, we can’t answer. We don’t know the details. I have heard of a foreigner in Thailand getting in trouble for the same reason (it was in the news), but I think in that case it really was his full-time occupation and livelihood. No similar cases in Taiwan come to mind, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.

My verdict:

  1. Ask a lawyer.
  2. Also what @Brianjones said.
  3. Also see below.
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I’ve been through this. If you’re running a YT channel for fun, you’re not doing anything illegal until money is involved. You might monetize the channel and get paid through a bank in your country and no one in Taiwan would be the wiser, but you’d be technically breaking the law, but assuming you were reporting your income in your country, you’d be fine there. If you were getting paid through a bank in Taiwan and reported the income nowhere, you’d be breaking the law in two countries. In any case, if the work (producing content) is done in Taiwan and you are paid for it, the income has to be reported in Taiwan (freedom of speech not withstanding). If you don’t do that, you’re breaking two laws in Taiwan, illegal labor and unreported income. If it were normal freelancing type work you might get away with it, but presumably your face is on the videos. If you’re talking about Taiwan and Taiwanese people don’t like something you say or just don’t like your face, or even if people do like you, it’s a lot easier to come to the attention of the MOL. If ads are appearing in your videos, and not for having copyright music, it will be pretty obvious what you’re doing.
Best situation is, you can start a company and get paid via it. You probably couldn’t be both a teacher and a YouTuber. Unless you have an open work permit in which case almost anything is permissible.

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Let’s rephrase this question. Are there any foreigners here running a monetized YouTube channel?
one of my Facebook friends, who provides content for her online Tutoring company as a mentor tells me that YouTube doesn’t allow any foreigners to have a monetized channel.
I’m not sure how much she’s researched this, she just prepares content to help fellow teachers and earn brownie points with the company she works for…
so question number one, are there any foreigners who have a monetized channel? is there a way that those of us with universal work rights can convince YouTube into allowing us to have a monetized channel.
is there a local office?

I think it depends on how you want to set it up. Do you do it as “foreign income”, declare it as such at tax time, and have it deposited it a bank account in your home country? As long as you have an open work permit, I don’t see anything wrong with this. You would just have to be sure about the tax obligations in both countries - I think you would likely have to pay taxes on that income in your home country.

As for setting up a Youtube account in relation to a Taiwanese bank account, you would think that it should be possible. You would just have to be sure that the bank was recognized by Youtube - I don’t see what Youtube would have to do with it in relation to you being a foreigner; I could be wrong though. Of course, you would think that this would be the easiest, but in Taiwan what is rational is often not the case, especially when it comes to banking!

Foreign to what? YouTube/Google isn’t a country (yet). How do they determine who is a foreigner?

Not sure about that, but do they allow a Taiwan-registered company to have a monetized channel? If so, start a company and do that when you have an open work permit.

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What’s wrong may be that he’s doing the work in Taiwan while holding a work permit to work for a Taiwanese company. I don’t know if that is against any laws or not, but it seems like it might be.