Paying Tax On Private Tutoring Income

Legal Taxes
1

Hello there,

How do Formosans who earn a substantial amount of their income through private tutoring handle paying taxes? I am hearing some people say don’t pay any tax. Does the government not ask questions in situations like this?

Thanks

EWM

2

You can just declare it at the tax office, irrespective of whether you have an open work permit (and if you don’t, I don’t think the tax office routinely shares the info with immigration).

That’s what you’re supposed to do anyway. No idea what proportion of people do. I would guess it’s less than 100%.

3

The tax office, at least the one in Taoyuan, doesn’t require any kind of official income form. I keep track of my income on a spreadsheet then write the total on a piece of paper and hand it to the nice tax lady.

A couple of my own personal reasons for declaring all of my income are:

  1. I never want anything to come back and bite me in the ass in the future and affect my legal residency status.

  2. I feel the tax rate I pay isn’t unreasonable, especially considering that I’ve used my fair share of the national health system, and will likely do more so as I get older. (I’m American so I’m still in awe of the system here)

I don’t judge others in this matter, just sharing my experience.

4

I’ve only declared tutoring income in one year (and only earned it in one year, because I stopped doing it), but it was the same in Taipei. I didn’t need to show any records, just told them the total. I’ve heard the same from someone else too — it seems pretty laid back.

Even if the tax office did want better records, I’m not sure what they could actually do. The attitude I’ve always taken with this stuff is “Well, that’s what I earned. Do you want me to pay tax on it or not? :man_shrugging:”

If anything, they seem a bit surprised that the person is actually voluntarily declaring it.

5

Well, my income is not from a Taiwanese entity, so like self employed. Just report whatever you earn. Done

6

For me, they keep asking me for a notarized payslip every year and then I need to discuss with them each year to get that requirement waived…

So YMMV on what kind of “proof” the tax office requires…

7

Well the first thing to consider is whether or not you’re legally able to do private tutoring. It would be a shame to report your income from private tutoring only to find out that it’s illegal and you get hammered by the NIA for performing duties unrelated to your immigration status.

Here are two examples of foreigners who can legally do private tutoring. Do you fall into either of these two categories?

  1. Are you married to a Taiwanese and do you have a JFRV based ARC?
  2. Do you have an APRC with an Open-Work Permit?
8

Seconded -

Are you filing US taxes by the way and have you been reporting the tutoring on those?

9

Right…because if he’s American and he’s legally able to tutor English in Taiwan, then that revenue is considered self-employment income and none of it falls under the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion amount. Basically any income derived from self-employment (tutoring) must be reported to the US IRS and all of it is taxable.

10

And if already reported to the US tax office….gotta make sure the story stays consistent