I have decided to voluntarily cut back my hours and am now earning about 27,000 p/four week month.
My employer says that she will not be paying tax for me. She has told me that I on such a low income my tax rate will be nothing, or next to nothing. I’m not so confident in this answer and wonder just how much tax I will be asked to pay at just under 7,000 a week.
Does anyone know?
Check that you’re legal. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t want to withold tax. There’s a minimum salary for white-collar workers – around NT$48,000 I think – while for teachers there’s a minimum number of hours you have to work before they’ll give you a work permit.
I thought that was behind her not withholding tax - not earning enough for an ARC - and I asked if there was going to be a problem for me at tax time. She said, ‘no’ :s
The minimum, if I recall, for teachers is either 10 or 14 hours a week. If its the latter this 7,000 a week lark doesn’t have a bright future for me.
This is definately going to cause concern come tax time. As was pointed out, you have to work at least 14 hours per week to maintain your ARC. I suspect that your boss is not withholding tax for you becuase this would show up as a problem at an early date. The tax office will be asking you why your pay is so low when you file. I am not certain if there is a minimum hourly salary or not. If not, perhaps you can get by with under stating your hourly rate.
One year, after I had cut back my hours (down to perhaps 14 hours/week, not less) so that I could study Chinese like hell that year, and after I had taken an unusual amount of vacation for travel, my annual income was a bit on the low side, and the tax office gave me some grief over it. I explained the situation, and told them that I would be resuming normal hours the next year. In the end they accepted my explanation, which I had to submit in writing, and it never came up again.
So just the drop in income may raise a flag at the tax office, and if you’ve also gone below 14 hours, it could be a problem, as Enigma points out. Has anyone else had experience with this?
Cheers, Enigma, that might work, so long as the new hourly rate isn’t pitched too low. I’ll also have to talk to a friend of mine, who, I’m told, worked very low hours for years.