No. Tax law and immigration law are separated. If you accumulate 183 days, you will become a full tax resident, no exceptions.
It’s also worth noting you’re a semi tax resident if you stay more than 90 days (but not subject to AMT).
which means in reality? if you are not income producing in taiwan.
If you are here for 183 days you would be subject to AMT even if you have no Taiwan income. If you are here for 90 to 182 days, then you’re only liable for tax on Taiwan produced income.
Edit: AMT allowance is NT$6.7M before tax but you must declare anything over NT$1M even no tax is due. If you already paid tax on that income then dual-taxation-agreement offsets may apply.
roger that but what happens to the poor bastards that can’t leave taiwan dues to flight availability before 183 days?
I just picked up my ARC today.
Throughout the whole process, no questions about all the visa runs, no one asked to see my bank statements, no one questioned why my tax returns say $0.00. Nothing.
Once I had the work permit, it was like a formality. Five days to transfer the visa-free into a visitor’s visa (the good one), the same day submitted for ARC, which took two weeks.
With all the extensions, D-day was August 3rd. I’m a little in shock today.
They were good days while they lasted. I used to enjoy a long weekend in HK, eating Indian at Chungking Mansions, then walking around the city aimlessly, usually up around Mong Kok. It might be years before I’m back.
Good luck to all the others here.
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Entering hk did you need to quarantine?
What did you mean by “the good one”? Did you have to get a resident visa before getting your ARC?
That’s interesting. I’ve heard ancedotes (and read on this forum) of people being questioned about prior tax returns.
Did you actually have to submit prior tax return(s) prior to obtaining the ARC? I’ve heard of people saying that too, after going from a prolonged visa-free stay to an ARC.
I mean, I didn’t get the extension. I stayed “visa-free” until I had a work contract.
No, it went ‘visa-free’ to ‘visitor’s visa’ to ARC.
No, I’ve done my taxes before. To get the latest tax receipt, you have to have all the previous ones done too. I submitted the latest one to the company applying for the work permit.
I wouldn’t know. I showed up at the visa/ARC office and they took my work permit my passport and work contract to process the visitor’s visa.
Tax receipts, bank statements, they weren’t interested, just handed them back to me. The only other document I needed was the lease on my apartment, but that was required for the ARC application.
I shouldn’t have extended my visa-exempt stay but then at the time I didn’t know that they were granting automatic extensions. 
My company is applying for a work permit for me and if everything goes well, it should arrive in the next few days… but if I can’t apply for an ARC in Taiwan because of the extended visa-exempt stay, then I’ll have a problem.
What form(s) did you have to fill in for the ARC? I’ll probably get all the documents ready and head to NIA to plead my case.
They’ll walk you though it. Almost nothing.
Ok, thanks. Hopefully they’ll make some exceptions during the pandemic… my contract is for 6 months only so it doesn’t make sense for me to leave, quarantine for 14 days, come back, and then quarantine for 14 days.
If a negative test + 5 day quarantine and another test meant a gradual re-opening of the border people would be less angry.
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The hubby escaped from Taiwan today. For the past 8 years, he would come over and stay a few months, and then go back to the States for a few months. He’s retired so not using any services here, and I’m paying my fair share of taxes. This time, he’s going to apply for the visa for entry to stay as a spouse. We’ve got a few months so we’ll see what happens.
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I arrived on March 3 and were given a 3 months tourist visa. With the three automatic extensions it took me to the end of August to use the maximum 180 days. Am I right in assuming the fourth and fifth extension does not apply to me as I have already reached the maximum?
Correct. They seem to be obsessed with the 180 day mark.
I see them maybe resuming visa free access in the fall.
But in the interim you’ve got a few options:
- Apply for a Gold Card
- Find a company to issue you a bogus invitation letter so you can get one of these business visas. (this was a common scheme in China back in the day)
- Get a job offer. Exit and re-enter with the job offer in hand. This would likely get you 30 or so days.
Can you explain the second option?
What would be required of the company and what type of Visa is it?