What a way to talk about your own wife. How lucky
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Yep
She did it all out of love and I gave her human kindness in return.
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From the very beginning you were talking about “western” and/or “professional” foreigners. Not migrant workers on minimum wage.
So why should migrant workers on minimum wage be included in the average?
You can get a place for less than 90k, due to low interest rates. The down payment of 20 percent or so is way harder In New Taipei City you could get a place for 30k a month no problem.
The thread has also been about people struggling to meet the ever-increasing salary requirement since the second post, which is a logical consequence of my intent when starting the discussion. Especially since your hypocritical comments about people doing things I’m confident you’d have few qualms about doing if you were to benefit from them. Migrant workers and non-westerners are a large part of this group.
Don’t you have better things to do? Maybe you could go show some more of that human kindness to your wife or something? You could perhaps try applying it more broadly too.
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No, I’m saying that the migrant workers are in a completely different league compared to the white-collar foreigners you’ve been referring to from the start. They were never qualifying for an APRC anyway.
(And yes, it is unfair to allow their incomes to drag down the overall average simply because of the sheer number of them compared to white-collar professionals.)
There is a new path that I never saw coming which is the option to upskill, with support from both the employer and the government.
When I went through the Taiwan citizenship process, the lady at the HHR office explained that almost everyone goes the asset route since it’s still set at NT$5 million (which, by the way, hasn’t been adjusted for inflation as far as I know).
According to her, most of those applying for Taiwan citizenship are Vietnamese married to Taiwanese nationals, which makes perfect sense. For them, the income requirement is basically a non-issue as they meet the assets part. That said, I do think it would be more reasonable if the NIA allowed combining both spouses’ incomes, just as they already allow for combined assets.
As for white collar foreigners… as you see they are on averages of around 90k which makes perfect sense. Those who upskill will move into that category. My wife has a Filipino friend of a friend who got or may be on the path for an APRC via that route. I don’t know his income but he bought a new SUV a few months ago so I guess he’s doing fine.
The point of having an income or assets test is to ensure that people have the skills to not require handouts or funds when times get tough. Where to draw the line can be tough but I think it is fair to use double minimum income as a line. Although I do think they should allow combined incomes for those married (perhaps with the requirement the applicant has at least 1.5X minimum salary.)
We’re having a discussion about it, that’s the whole point of the thread. The world isn’t one big fairy tale (I wish it were), but real progress requires tough, logical decisions and honest discussions about uncomfortable topics.
If we’re going to apply that kind of emotional reasoning you have, then perhaps Taiwan should also try to solve world hunger and import every starving child from Africa. Obviously, that’s not how responsible policymaking works.
So?
The facts don’t care about your agendas.
I’ve had a similar problem before! My boss never deducted taxes from my salary and he had a conversation with the tax office for no reason and obviously spoke to an idiot who said he had to withhold.
So he did an adjustment of some sort (for no reason) and paid the tax office 8 months worth of withholding at some ridiculous amount and asked me to pay the bill he received with his name on it. I refused as he never had deducted from my salary and told him he needs to speak to the tax office not me. I also mentioned him stealing from my pension for years so I didn’t get any backlash and the fact that I was leaving soon so I’m not getting involved in a problem someone else caused and that I will do my taxes correctly.
When I did my tax return (online) there was a withholding amount of X% which I changed to 0% fully prepared to pay what I owe.
Whoever processed the return at the tax office after I submitted/declared changed it back to X%
So in the end - my ex employer lost and, the tax office broke even, and I did nothing illegal.
In the words of Taylor Swift. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes
P.S. This was a few years ago so I may have gotten some details wrong but that’s roughly what happened
Sounded like it, although perhaps some nuance was lost:
No they didn’t. You might have thought that’s what they issued you, but no.