The language is very dismissive. They are basically given the banks an out for their discrimination based on internal policy. 
Language - irrelevant
Tax information collecting - non-issue, online declarations are legal. (Seems like they want to encourage banks to continue collecting false tax declarations from foreigners). Not difficult. Also tax declarations are required of Taiwan citizens who are tax residents of other countries, they’re admitting they do not care about banks collecting information correctly.
Online ARC validation - if line pay, amex, NHI etc can do this, it’s obviously not difficult. 晶片居留證資料查詢網站
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Line bank doesn’t want to bother though… And yes, they want to collect more false declarations.
Another one is to do with Taiwan’s own tax residency laws —> Check out this post https://tw.forumosa.com/t/taiwan-tax-residency-laws-clarification/223159
They hate it when you point out their own laws and how they often don’t follow them.
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I just sent a further reply to them where I explicitly said I will go to the Control Yuan to report if they don’t take any actual measure since they are derelicting their duties.
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I went through in my reply to all the points they made making clear they are moot. It was quite lengthy, and I referenced to points of law and regulation in Chinese for no ambiguity.
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not yet, need to corner them. Let’s see if they try at least to save some face.
It appears that they won’t. This has gone on for a long time now
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Also weird note. We haven’t even mentioned applying for credit cards. There can’t be much risk in opening regular accounts, could there?
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We are (allegedly) more likely to be laundering money (despite obviously being a local resident).
But it’s funny though… because many (foreign business owners living in Taiwan) I know end up inadvertently avoiding Taiwan tax because of these stupid policies.
They simply get sick of all the problems and simply open an account in Hong Kong, in which the bank cannot share information with Taiwan…
Because of the annoying xenophobic policies.
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Yes, I agree with @comfy123.
Opening a deposit account goes also through the AML/ATF due diligence, which basically profiles the customer for their risk, there are several factors which increase it and based on the risk level, a stricter ongoing review of the account is undertaken, which means more work for the compliance department.
Risk is not only for credit/lending, it’s mainly for banks based on AML/ATF, a lot in particular for sanctions. We routinely have to reject account opening applications due to excessive risk for AML purposes. It is not nice and limits the business, but better doing less than getting struck.
However both HK and TW participate (as all OECD countries and jurisdictions) to CRS and FATCA and actively now do AEOI to counter tax avoidance and fight ML and terrorist financing.
Recently, after I moved here and opened HSBC TW, HSBC HK contacted me to correct my tax residency declaration after they received the updated information via AEOI. Also. one of the Italian banks I still have an account at contacted me to updated their records after I moved here. They did the same when I moved to HK.
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Just finalized my complaint to The Control Yuan
I suggest everyone complain and see where it goes!
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Good on you. I’m curious what answer they’re going to try and fob you off with next though…
I’m not letting this go. This can become a diplomatic problem for all I care. I am also going to start contacting my contacts in Australia and see if anyone can help me contact a relevant member in Canberra!
This xenophobic discrimination is absurd and shouldn’t be happening. Nor should it have gone this far!
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Dude, Canberra’s not going to do anything because they can’t do anything to begin with. It’s not the right of Australia to go in and start pressuring another country to do what they want, that’s a violation of Taiwan’s sovereignty.
If you want to get legal interpretation, you have to go to court here, in Taiwan in Taiwan’s rules.
It’s not that it has gone this far, it’s that it started off in a higher place with the Kuomintang dictatorship and since people in general are notoriously bad at picking up all the mess.
Life and discrimination has only gotten better from the 1990s, but it is still a work in progress. You can not let this go all you want, but if you want enforcement of the law, you have to get a judge’s word on it. Canberra is not going to create an international incident because someone wants a higher interest rate at an online bank. Hell, Manila hasn’t even lifted a finger when their own citizens were locked down in their dorms.
Change has to come from within. Risking yourself being labelled as a troublemaker in the media is not going to help our case and may even hurt it. If you’re that serious about not letting it go, then pony up the money for a lawyer and fight the company directly. I already know what it’s like to fight a company directly and this is basically your only choice.
Wishing you luck though. Please don’t burn yourself out.
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Anytime
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This has also been bugging me. Did you respond to their response and set them straight? I would love to know how they respond again once you tell them you also have a Taiwan driving license and NHI card.
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Ah I just read the other response about the banks having a final say as to whether they should allow foreigners to open accounts, due to regulatory requirements on reporting to foreign governments.
That actually makes sense. A lot of banks in Switzerland don’t allow US citizens to open accounts due to the US’s FBAR reporting laws, but banks here shouldn’t be allowed to lump all foreigners together with Americans.