My wife is a naturalized Taiwanese. A few months ago she had lost her job and stayed unemployed for some period of time. Obviously, after job lost she exited Labor Insurance (勞保) program. After about 2 months we have got a bill from National Pension (納保) to pay…
After some research we found that it would be unreasonable to join National Pension for my wife now. She is already 52 years old. Before 65 she would accumulate almost nothing with National pension. So, we do not want to pay that 納保 bill. Can we just ignore those bills if my wife is not going to apply for any benefits from National Pension?
Another question. Assuming we will pay that premium now but in future my wife will find a new job and switch back to Labor Insurance, what will happen with the accumulated premiums on National Pension?
From BLI web-site I did not get clear answer. Can someone here give us suggestions or opinions. Thank you!
I don’t know the rule or legality, but one of my relatives has ignored these letters for years and has never had any issues. Best to check.
every year, a few hundred unlucky spouses of someone who should but didn’t pay for the national pension are fined. maybe they first get bills to pay on behalf of their spouses, then if ignore, get fined.
iiuc, she will get for what she pay. the minimum is 3800 per month, if she doesn’t miss any payment, so for short duration of participation, it is extremely efficient. if there are any months she didn’t pay, it will be several hundred ntd per month for a few years of participation.
@tando already answered, but I also could find this information online:
https://www.ocac.gov.tw/OCAC/Eng/Pages/Detail.aspx?nodeid=4345&pid=10047186
By extension, this also seems to mean that if you have HHR, but live overseas, you still are required to pay into the system, and there seems to be no law to allow for suspending or canceling these payments even if you are overseas. If I misunderstood this point, I hope someone with more knowledge (@tando?) can correct me.
A related question: How is your national pension payment amount calculated in case you have HHR, you are a tax resident of Taiwan, but are performing online work (digital nomad) for a foreign company with payment to a foreign bank account? In that case I guess that your foreign-sourced income is taxable in Taiwan (since you are a tax resident), but what about your national pension payment? Is it calculated based on your foreign-sourced income? Or is it calculated assuming that you have zero income in Taiwan?
In a different case, if you have HHR but are not a tax resident of Taiwan, and are living overseas, then how much is the required monthly premium payment into the national pension system?
如果您已經將戶籍主動辦理遷出國外，或者因為超過2年未持本國護照入境而被戶政機關將戶籍遷出國外，那麼在除籍期間就不屬於國民年金被保險人，勞保局會主動為您辦理退保。
if you cannot join any other pention systems, you should join national pension, and it is flat rate for everyone. 1186 ntd per month, if you are not subject of welfare
Thanks!
For reference, the above text comes from this government page: 勞動部勞工保險局全球資訊網-便民服務-常見問答-國民年金-被保險人及效力-一般對象-4. 我長期居住在國外，還要參加國民年金保險嗎？
So it seems that if you voluntarily register that you are living overseas (HHR move-out registration), then you are no longer part of the national pension scheme during the period of your HHR being moved abroad, and don’t need to pay. (But if you left your HHR active in move-in status, then probably you would continue to be billed for 2 years, after which the HHR office moves you out automatically.)
This seems to imply that later, when you again re-establish HHR (HHR move-in registration for living in Taiwan again), you will again be covered by the national pension system, and you must again start to pay. If I understand correctly, you only pay for the period when you have HHR registration in Taiwan, and do not need to pay back old payments for the past period when you were living overseas (during HHR move-out registration status). If I misunderstood, please correct me! @tando
What I mean is some insurance combination. At this point my wife already had Labor Insurance coverage (about 5 years). Assuming now she is unemployed and switch to National Pension for 5-10 months. Then what if she will work again and switch back to Labor Insurance?
AFAIK she will only continue accumulate her Labor Insurance contributions. As for National Pension it seems she cannot claim because she already joined another pension source, right?
iiuc
when she is in the labor insuranse for more that 15 years, she can claim her old age pension benefit. in that case, she can only claim national pension benefit with Method B, and the amount may be negligible.
if she is in labor insurance for less than 15 years and she claims lump sum benefit paiment, she can claim national pension by Method A. this may depend on the amount of the lump sum payment, though.
in the above case, she also has the option to combine the years of labor insurance and national pension. if the combined years are more than 15 years, she can claim old age pension benefit and national penstion by Method B for respective insured years. the amount of national pension may be negligible, but total amount of old age pension benefit can exceed the lump sum payment in a few years, depending on the years in labor insurance.
Dear @tando , thank you very much for the information! Could you please to point a link (in Chinese) where we can read the details.
This. I regularly shred my wife’s pension bills.
Great! Thank you so much!
The most important that the premiums would not be lost. We’ll do some estimation and comparison since we also consider an option to join trade union.