Everyone here is trying to get the NHI asap. Understandable, because it’s an affordable insurance that covers a lot.
But if what if you don’t want to? Is it really a must-do for foreigners, even without a local job?
I mean if you don’t apply for it, what happens…?
I have my own insurance from my country and I’m fine with it. Paying for both is not desirable. But the bureaucracy nightmare is probably the thing I fear even more, lol.
Its compulsory for those who qualify if I understand their website correctly.
https://www.nhi.gov.tw/english/Content_List.aspx?n=C88B41A4EAB5E692&topn=778856C209BCE527
You could of course make sure that you never qualify.
Either way, the bureaucracy will still be there if you suddenly end up in the back of an ambulance.
the bureaucracy is not a nightmare at all, at least in the Taipei head office. in my opinion it is better to have NHI, just for emergencies like being hit by a bus and ending up in an intensive care unit.
If you’re single and have a low reported salary then just get it. If you’re married with kids and/or on a reasonable salary then try to steer clear!
Even if you delay getting it, once you apply for it, you have to backpay for each month that you were supposed to pay.
So let’s say you came Jan 1 and eligible July 1, but you apply Dec 1, you will have to pay a one time payment of all payments supposed to make July to Dec, and then each monthly as normal afterwards.
You can probably avoid it by not staying longer than 6 months at a time.
I don’t know what country you’re from, but NHI payment isn’t THAT bad compared to what they got in the US.
But you’ll have to pay for every month you become eligible, even if you don’t register.
OoO I did not know this was mandatory. One issue I might have is I still don’t have a permanent mailing address, still hopping around AirBNBs after 8 months. Dunno if I can get a PO Box sorta thing and use that?
Also it says the premium is calculated based on income, but I have no Taiwan-sourced income and did not plan on filing a tax return (it’s my understanding I have no tax obligations here since I do not have TW-sourced income).
My only income is from investments and distributions based in the US
Then you will pay the minimum which is 826/mo I think.
And before they had no way to track it so people were able to slide under the radar. Now they can literally see what immigration status one has, when they arrived and left, etc, so they definitely will catch people
What’s your immigration status. Afaik they don’t allow foreigners to get NHI if you are on a visitor visa for example. Do you have an ARC?
I guess you can only get and need to get it when having resident status.
ARC yep
OK you might want to get that sorted soon because I didn’t once (I was out of country) and didn’t make payments and when I returned they had all my dates of arrival and demanded payment for 6 months which kinda sucked
Taiwan taxes foreign-sourced income once you stay past 183 days/year. If you’re on the gold card there is a break on that tax for a few years. Also, since you say only investments and distributions then you may be able to get around this (not sure if you can do it legitimately or by being sly). But Taiwan is not a tax haven for offshore income.
As a US citizen I owe US taxes no matter where I reside, and if I pay taxes in TW, I can deduct from what I pay in the US, so it actually comes out about the same (I saw a breakdown that it can be slightly better to pay taxes in both actually). There’s no tax dodging for sure.
I’ll try to find what I was reading that made me think I don’t owe here. I’ve read it in multiple places though. Will share it when I find it.
hmm, very confusing. so this page:
only has a section for “Income from sources in the R.O.C.”, and no section for outside ROC, leading me to believe outside income is not taxed.
But:
Then…
“From January 1, 2016 onwards, capital gains derived from
transactions in marketable securities are exempt from
income tax”
But for distributions from a foreign company:
“In addition, dividends from foreign companies received
by resident individuals may be subject to AMT at a rate of 20%.”
That “may be” seems to be this:
“Resident taxpayers with AMT taxable income of more than
NT$6.7 million may be subject to AMT at the current rate of 20%.”
So ummm, I dunno lol.
My US tax return is usually thousands of pages (no joke, as I have to file in multiple states), so having to pay here and figure out how much etc would be a huge headache.
Anyone have an accountant they want to recommend?
yeah your last two links are the ones that I’ve used. And yes, my understanding is that my taxes will have negligible difference once I move to Taiwan as we will just owe a bit to Taiwan which we can deduct from the US (when you factor in the Gold Card deductions and possibly FEIE it might turn out slightly favorable?)
I’ll definitely be curious to learn from you once you go through the process. We are in a very similar situation (except my wife just accepted a w2 position) and we’re moving to Taiwan next summer.
I believe there is CPA on these forums who is a US citizen/Taiwan resident who is also a gold card holder. With zero connection to anyone in this space, she might be a good person to chat with? I wanna say it is “Bree” but I could be wrong so not tagging lol
From OP:
“
I have my own insurance from my country and I’m fine with it. Paying for both is not desirable. But the bureaucracy nightmare is probably the thing I fear even more, lol.”
Is it easy to claim medical bills for your health insurance from your country?
The premium may be high, high deductible and copayment.
Many insurance only pay for accidents only.