I’ve made some other posts about my plans to set up business in Taiwan but there’s another option I would like to consider. Essentially, I hate living in the UK and want out. I own a recording studio here in England and make a good living from both the musical and business sides. Love the work, hate the environment. I also have a TESL degree so I could easily find teaching work in Taiwan, but it would tear me apart to choose between living in Taiwan or working in music. (Yeh, I want it all but whatcha gonna do?)
So, what if I get my ARC through employment as a teacher or taking a BSc or whatever, build a studio in my house and carry on making music? My company will still be UK registered, I’ll still be working for that UK company, but I’ll just physically be somewhere else. I know I will eventually have to pay tax in Taiwan, but what about the work issue? Does it count as ‘voluntary work’? No matter how anal the Taiwanese authorities are, are they really going to want to chuck people out who are regularly paying hefty tax on money they’ve earned abroad?
For example, I do a lot of travelling to America. While I’m there I get any urgent writing projects done on my laptop or in a temporary studio and send them back to the UK. I’ve never had a US work permit or residency but this is legal because I’m never getting paid by US companies. This makes sense, but I know a lot of things in Taiwan don’t necessarily ‘make sense’ in the same way. So what’s the deal here?
As far as I can tell from your post, any music making you do here in Taiwan is just you doing your own thing, in your own time. Why on earth would you want to pay tax on it? You’ll already be paying tax on it in the UK due to it being a UK registered business, unless you register the company in Taiwan, then you don’t need to pay tax.
I dabble in the stockmarket via a UK based stockbroker. Any tax liabilities arising from this is payable in the UK, though I do all the analysis from Taiwan. There aint no way in hell I’m going to pay double tax.
It doesn’t matter where you do the work, just where the company that pays you the money is registered.
You’ll get an ARC from an employer here in Taiwan and of course you’ll pay tax on earnings from this job in Taiwan. But you won’t get an ARC for messing about in a studio all day, even by calling it voluntary work and by paying tax on your UK earnings. Someone has got to sponsor you for the visa. Be it yourself through your own registered company, a school or some other Taiwanese company.
Like I said, I’m happy to get an ARC through other employment, study or what-have-you as long as I can continue working legally through the UK company. I don’t know what Taiwan considers ‘work’ and whether setting up a studio to work for the UK company alongside registered work is legal.
Most countries require you to pay tax on foreign income under all manner of circumstances, which is why tax treaties exist to avoid double taxation.
I’m considering setting up a Representative Office or Branch Office - as far as I can tell, both cover the remit of what I want to do.
[quote=“wangdoodle”]As far as I can tell from your post, any music making you do here in Taiwan is just you doing your own thing, in your own time. Why on earth would you want to pay tax on it? You’ll already be paying tax on it in the UK due to it being a UK registered business, unless you register the company in Taiwan, then you don’t need to pay tax.
I dabble in the stockmarket via a UK based stockbroker. Any tax liabilities arising from this is payable in the UK, though I do all the analysis from Taiwan. There aint no way in hell I’m going to pay double tax.
It doesn’t matter where you do the work, just where the company that pays you the money is registered.
You’ll get an ARC from an employer here in Taiwan and of course you’ll pay tax on earnings from this job in Taiwan. But you won’t get an ARC for messing about in a studio all day, even by calling it voluntary work and by paying tax on your UK earnings. Someone has got to sponsor you for the visa. Be it yourself through your own registered company, a school or some other Taiwanese company.[/quote]