I left Taiwan this past August, returned to post-grad school in my home country. I filed all of my taxes, and generally cleaned up my life before leaving. As part of this, I was careful to ask the tax office how I would be able to claim my tax return from overseas. They told me that they could either deposit money to a Taiwanese bank account, or send a cheque. Being unsure whether I would ever return to Taiwan, I didn’t want to maintain a bank account with a minimum balance - and to boot, they told me that the cheque could be issued quite quickly (in ~2 months), whereas a deposit would take over a year (not sure why). Even better, they informed me that I could have a friend proxy for me, allowing them to deposit the cheque and wire me the money.
They presented me with a proxy form, which I filled out at the tax office with my friend. They required my friend’s Passport, ARC, and thumbprint to complete this form - it is an official government document. I am 100% certain that we filled the form out correctly. The form was in both English and Chinese, and very clearly stated that my friend would be my proxy, and further, that by filling out this form I was authorizing the tax office to issue a cheque without any "only deposit-able by " restriction stamped on it.
Well, the cheque has been issued, and my friend has picked it up without issue. The problem we’re having, is that no bank wants to cash it for him, because it has my name on it. We’re at a loss. The tax office seems to think that the cheque cannot be cashed by an overseas bank, so mailing the cheque to me doesn’t appear to be an option. Whether this is a real restriction or just a perceived one is unknown to me.
I’m posting to see if anyone else has encountered a similar situation. The amount of money is considerable, making this a rather important problem for me. I would really appreciate any insight!