Well tax time is upon us all again. The first part of this post is a personal experience that I had with an employer who failed to pay taxes on my behalf. The second half of the post covers general tax information.
Tax not paid by my employer
cheers for that :bravo:
i ran into some tax problems this year working for a new school. My previous school did everything by the book and even overtaxed me at 10% just incase my hours went up⌠they did it to protect me; so i wouldnât have to pay out of pocket in case i should have been taxed at a higher rate. and, like you said, i got it all back in the end⌠forced savings.
This time around my school lied and failed to tell me this lie when i went to the tax office to file. The tax office was onto it immediately and asked right away why i was earning less than half of what i earned in the previous two years. since i teach illeglly ( 
) at a kindy 2 hours each morning, those earnings are obviously not claimed by anyone and not taxed.
hereâs what happened:
my school claimed i earned the bare minimum: 30,000/month. bogus of course and the tax office is quite aware of the average pay of teachers. this is my arc job and therefore, in the eyes of the tax office, my primary income. 6% of â30,000â a month is 1800NT. iâve really been getting paid 50,000 a month after tax⌠meaning 6% of 50,000 being 3000Nt which is what they deduct every month.
the tax office then made me write and sign a letter as to why iâm earning so little compared to previous years. i was beside myself⌠didnât know what to say, what was going on etc⌠when i went to talk to my boss about it she gave me two stories:
1: an employee canât earn more than an employer. She is the Taiwanese half to the ownership and draws a lower monthly salary than the foreign owner and myself, the foreign teacher.
2: if she claims my real salary they would have to pay more for my health insurance each month.
either way, becuase my contract says â50,000 AFTER taxâ they have a lot of room to fib⌠technically, they should be paying 3000NT to the tax office each month but instead are claming the bare minimumâŚ
My school has never deducted any taxes from my wages. I arrived in august, and didnât begin working until mid september, however my work permit and ARC didnât become valid till Oct 19th.
Anyone know how I go about my taxes. I kept my pay stubs.
What about a boss that paid your taxes correctlyâŚbut now is just too lazy to give you a tax reciept?
MY old man, bless his heart, turned 60 in Feb 2004. I am curious about the tax law about dependents. It says âhaving attained the age of 60â in the English version of the Income Tax booklet. Since he was 60 for more than 183 days in 2004 will I be able to use him 
Wow. A lot of good questions here. Let me see if I can answer them for you.
Disclaimer: I am not a tax lawyer. I just have some familiarity with the tax office and the tax legislation. What I suggest below is my personal opinion from my dealings with the tax office.
An English version of the tax legislation can be found here.
bushibanned - In many cases such as yours the tax office may ask about your situation, but not follow up. If they are persistent however you may find that they refuse to process your tax return until you clarify your income for them.
I would be inclined to sign a statement about your true income and then claim ignorance about how much your employer was taxing you on. The tax office may ask you to make up the difference between what should have been paid and what you did pay. At the end of the day this money will have to come from your pocket as it should have done in the first place, but there is an alternative as per my story at the top of this thread.
You could always insist that as the employer was the one to make the mistake then they should be the one to pay the difference. There is no legal basis in this, and the tax office will know it, but your employer might not. In my opinion your employer is in the wrong, and this might just be a good way to teach them a lesson. I would suggest to your employer that they should pay the outstanding taxes to the tax office for you. They can either send it to the tax office, or give it to you in cash and you will take it to them. If they donât then tell them that you will need to go to the tax office and seek the tax offices help on what can be done.
Donât threaten the employer, just act as if you are naieve and are just trying to sort out the problem. There are fines in place for non-payment of taxes by employers that are generally calculated at three times the outstanding amount. If your employer knows this then they may be willing to play ball. Just drop the hint about involving the tax office toward the end of your conversation but again not as a threat but as a âWell, maybe the tax office will be able to tell me what to do?â
At the end of the day you will need to pay for the extra health care I believe, so you should tell your employer that you are willing to do this. Your employer will have to make a substantial payment too which will piss them off no doubt.
I hate employers who choose to do things under the table without telling employees that they are doing this. If they tell you what they are doing upfront then you can choose to agree to it or not. But I resent becoming a pawn in their eforts to avoid paying taxes. It happened to me once and I pursued the matter. I would recommend that you do the same.
Whiskey Girl - From what I understand of your situation, your employer paid you in full but didnât deduct taxes. I assume that this is your ARC employer. I would recommend that you do pay taxes as if you donât it may come back to bit you in the bum. (Case in point - A user of this forum contacted me for some advice after being screwed by his current employer. The only thing he could document against the employer were tax irregularities, but I assured him that these had some teeth. Unfortunately for him, he had worked a year here without paying taxes and I was honest with him that if he lodged a complaint with the tax office about his current employer, then the tax office would likely investigate his past tax records. He had to chose to walk away from his current problem because of this.)
If you really want to pay the taxes then you should tell your employer this. Do yourself a favor and write it all out showing the employer how much you have made and the deductions that you should have paid. Keep your payslips, and if the employer accepts your request be sure to get them to sign the page that you are showing them and receipting the money that you are paying down the bottom of the page.
If the employer is not willing to do this then act naieve and suggest that maybe the tax office might be able to find a solution to this problem. As a last resort, you can go to the tax office, spill the beans and make the payment directly to the tax office. This may have repercussions upon your employer though, so bear this in mind.
At the end of the day, all of this money will have to come out of your pocket, but the good thing is that it will square you up with the tax office and help you avoid any future problems.
Mordeth - I wouldnât screw around with this type of boss. If you have asked repeatedly and they have failed to give it to you then just go to the tax office to file without the withholding statement. You wonât be able to, but it will give you a chance to tell the tax office that your employer wonât give them to you. You can then be sure that the tax office will obtain these for you.
Chewycorns - My advice here would be to ask the advice of the counterstaff when you go to do your taxes. Have a look at the legislation first to see what documents you may require, but you can be sure that the office staff will help you.
Hey brian,
You mentioned in your first post that you should be able to get your refund within 14 days of filing your return. It is my first time doing taxes here in Taiwan and the people at the office told me that I will get my return mailed to me sometime after August. Does that sound correct?
stare
Getting a refund in around 14 days only applies if doing a quick return due to leaving the country, otherwise most refunds if applicable will be sent out in late October and November.
If you file earlier than the deadline then this can have a beneficial effect on refund time but no guarantees.
Thanks a lot for this thread.
Iâm currently having the same problem as Mordeth.
I worked for my ex-boss from Jan to end of June.
Today, I sent him a third email mentioning that I would have to involve the tax office if he didnât give me the âpiece of paperâ.
Luckily I was able to quote part of an email that he once sent me, in which he mentions how much tax he is paying on my behalf. Itâs nice to have some evidence in B&W, so he canât just deny it.
Again, thanks for the thread.
[quote=âirishstuâ]Thanks a lot for this thread.
Iâm currently having the same problem as Mordeth.
I worked for my ex-boss from Jan to end of June.
Today, I sent him a third email mentioning that I would have to involve the tax office if he didnât give me the âpiece of paperâ.
Luckily I was able to quote part of an email that he once sent me, in which he mentions how much tax he is paying on my behalf. Itâs nice to have some evidence in B&W, so he canât just deny it.
Again, thanks for the thread.[/quote]
One of our clients has an almost identical problem. The buxiban owner forced the tax department to go after them for the tax slips. Some people are very unlucky and donât have any evidence of how much their salary is, how much taxes are being taken out. At this time of year, they canât properly file their taxes. And their chances of recovering arenât good because they canât prove how much they earned and the buxiban owner will be under reporting the employees salary and taxes.
All business will have a TAX ID number separate from the Tong Yi Bian number that the government uses to keep track of businesses and how much taxes they file. Itâs an internal administrative step they take but it takes time to go after the cheats and swindlers. These business people hope that the employee goes away. Donât.
Report them and take them through the administrative appeal process. The government needs people to help them find the crooks and in turn they will help you get what youâre owed. Thereâs a lot of good advice already posted on these boards, especially by Feiren and Juba.
Our client in the year she was cheated will likely be getting a decent tax refund. If the buxiban owner continues being a twit, heâs going to be hauled in front of the tax court and forced to pay penalities plus give the refund. I canât wait to be there with our client.
DAMMIT!!!
I just got an email back from my previous employer saying that no taxes had been paid on my behalf and that I would have to say that I didnât get any classes there. In fact I worked full-time for 6 months.
Iâve written back saying this is completely unacceptable.
The good thing is that I really didnât have much written evidence against the school until they just sent me that email. Now I have them in black and white saying that I need to lie to the tax people.
Well, thanks to the useful advice given on this site, and a quote from the exact law my ex-boss was breaking (given to me by my current employerâs legal department), I was able to send my ex-boss one last email, telling him exactly what I would do if I didnât hear from him within 24 hours.
Happily, he backed down, and I now have the tax withholding paper. I have to say that the whole episode was very stressful indeed, and my advice to everyone about to get a job as an En;gish teacher is to:
- Make sure you have a copy of your contract and make sure it mentions the tax (in English would be better).
- Keep every single pay slip, even if it is hand-written. Even better if you can get them to write how much tax has been deducted each time.
- Start talking to your boss early on about when he/she will give you the tax withholding slip.
Good luck all. Itâs such a relief to have a job now where I just donât have to worry about these things.
So what if you just donât pay your taxes? Will I have to say that I was just travelling in Taiwan for 2 years while and didnât work to support myself at all? Will the Govât here ever find out?
They were absolute jerks at the tax office today. I just couldnât believe it. :fume:
Well you live in Taipei. Out here in the small towns they are great. You just hand them a blank form and some papers and they fill it all in for you.
Tell us more. What happened? Usually, the people who are working in the tax office have an unsually good reputation for being helpful and courteous. Iâd like to hear what happened and why they were so unfriendly.
Tell us more. What happened? Usually, the people who are working in the tax office have an unsually good reputation for being helpful and courteous. Iâd like to hear what happened and why they were so unfriendly.[/quote]
I tried to claim my parents as dependents. I had all the corect paperwork and everythingânotarized by AIT, the bank statements, EVERYTHING in order, and I got this big song and dance about what a screwed up family I have (my parents are divorced) and what a headache I am, blah, blah, blah.
And then a bit about how can they be sure the people in the notarized documents are my parentsâGEE, I DONâT KNOW, SHITHEADS, MAYBE BECAUSE IT STATES IN THE NOTARIZED DOCUMENTS THEY ARE MY PARENTS AND MAYBE BECAUSE MY DAD HAS THE SAME NAME I DO, EXCEPT HEâS Jr. and I am III. Keep in mind I have been claiming them for years now at that office with no problem. It was just their whole attitude. I was about to pull a Tyra Banks yelling at Tiffany, but I called a local friend who talked to the lady, then they accepted my form.
You encounter this attitude alot here. I think itâs when the person you are dealing with is too incompetent to do what they are supposed to be trained to do. The loss of face causes them to try and turn it around on youâŚand somehow make it YOUR fault. When in actuallity they are just incapable of doing their own job.
When the tax lady yells at you like this, itâs because she loves you. Do you know that you had a chance to win? How DARE you!
I had a lousy visit to the tax office today too. Like many people I went at lunch time, only to find out that most of their staff were out at lunch, so only four out of 11 or 12 stations had people at them. Yes they need to eat, but they should realize that during the final few days of tax season, particularly at lunch time, lots of taxpayers will need help, and they should be sufficiently staffed.
I walked up to the Easy Window (or something like that) where there was no line, and the girl told me I needed to stand in line and get a number. Stood in line for a half hour and got my number: 98. Then I waited another half hour for the current number to change from 77 to 78. Got fed up so I approached a Quick Service window (since I had already paid and had everything in order) and the girl told me, âsorry I canât help you because you already have a number.â Fortunately things then sped up because many in line apparently gave up and left. Total time in their office: about 2 hours.
To anyone who hasnât gone yet, I recommend going at 8:30 am instead of lunch.