[quote=“Hartzell”]
In my experience, another big hurdle is proving that you have paid local Taiwan income taxes. Since in the majority of the situations in which I am aware, the taxes for the husband and wife are filed in the name of the Taiwan spouse, that means that any documentation regarding PROOF OF TAXES PAID (whether for the husband or the wife) must be applied for by the Taiwan spouse.
Obviously, if the husband and wife are not on speaking terms, that could be difficult.
To my knowledge, proof of local taxes paid is indeed one of the requirements for getting an APRC.[/quote]
No longer the case. They changed this rule the very week I applied for my APRC in 2009 (and after all the effort I went through to obtain my proofs of payment…)
[quote=“Mr He”]If you file jointly, either party has the right to get the records. At least, such was the case in 2006.
It’s like household registry, if you are the foreign spouse and you are registered as such, you have a right to get them.[/quote]
That’s not true. When a couple files “jointly” one partner is listed as the primary taxpayer (納稅義務人), while the other is just the spouse. The Spouse has no legal recourse to obtaining any documentation from the tax office and effectively cedes such rights in perpetuity (directly translated from the tax code) to the so-called primary taxpayer. To apply for documentation from the tax office, the Spouse must have either the Primary Taxpayer present, or a power of attorney from him/her authorizing such application. Believe me, I went through a lot of grief on this issue.
It is only in the last couple of years that foreigners have been able to file taxes online as primary taxpayer, because the old software only recognized ROC ID numbers.