Law on working remote

What’s the law on working remote in Taiwan if you have an ARC with a specific address given for your workplace? Can you work from a coffee shop or remote working centre without being picked up by the coppers?

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Ever asked at the Tax Bureau on Chunghwa Road and Chunghsiao West Road in Taipei?
Their English is good.
I’ve asked specific questions on tax issues in-person and they always answered with the law.
Not in Taipei? Go to where you file.
Taiwan tax workers are very helpful, unlike other countries’.

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according to law you’re only allowed to work at the address you’re registered to work from. It can’t be enforced though, as the coppers walking in on you at your working centre won’t have any proof that you’re actually ‘working’ from there; you might just be spending your leisure time there. I can’t image there would be any way to enforce that law unless you’re reported for teaching at a second location.

Over the last 5 years Taiwan has pushed to become more accommodating of foreigners, and the police doesn’t like to enforce these arbitrary laws any more.

Sort of. Your employer can send you to external work locations, but there are limits to this, for several reasons. If a location is registered as one thing (e.g. a buxiban), it shouldn’t de facto be a different thing (e.g. a kindergarten), as different kinds of workplaces are subject to different health and safety rules, fire codes, etc. Having more than X people in a location simultaneously can activate certain rules and so on.

When in doubt, ask a lawyer.

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Regarding concern (as expressed by @Charlie_Jack in one of the Coronavirus threads) that working from home might get you in trouble, I don’t think you need to worry about this, as long as it’s requested by the employer as a temporary measure for OHS purposes in light of a public health emergency. (I’m talking about pure telework online, not turning your home into a classroom, factory, laboratory or what not.) :2cents:

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As a data point: for several years my company registration was listed at a different address (New Taipei) to my home (Taipei), and I worked from home. I had three labor inspections over this time. For the first one, I went to the company address to meet the inspector and during our chat explained I worked from home. The following two inspections the New Taipei inspector was happy to send the Taipei inspector over to my home by request. I can’t tell if this was influenced by being the 負責人.

TL;DR I didn’t have any issues with the labor office when working from the home address listed on my ARC.

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Thank you very much, @yyy!

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Thanks for that information, @fifieldt!

probably influenced by you being the director of the company…
I have a regular office job, but also work outside the office and not always during office hours.
I’ve been working in coffee shops, libraries and hotel lobbies for over 6 years now, never had a problem or a question asked.

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