Take action against Taiwan bank tax residency tax certificates

Time to stand up against the BS. Let’s start posting your incorrect tax statements and compile them so we can make a mass complaint on the incorrect information being posted by the incompetent Taiwanese banks

Enough is enough.

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They’re also apparently using “NOTIN”, i.e., that the jurisdiction doesn’t issue TINs, which is going to be false in many cases. That’s what Mega Bank tried to get me to declare too, as I wrote in my other post a couple of weeks back.

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need to check mine, got 2 so far and haven’t paid attention to them tbh.

I do not remember ever receiving this type of form from any bank. I get this type of form from my employer though. What is going on with that?

So, I checked the only 2 tax withholding statements I received so far: HSBC and CTBC. Both wrong and indicating as I stayed less than 183 days in Tw and considered Italian tax Resident…

Called HSBC first, they need to “check further” and call me back (might go to branch on Monday).

Called CTBC with the assistance of my gf for Chinese (still too difficult talking about tax in Chinese for me), they will have an English speaker call me back…

Funny fact: the withholding rate on HSBC form is like 5%! Whereas in CTBC is 20%.

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As I wrote in the other thread:

Checked mine, wrong also going way back, indicate I am not a Taiwan tax resident, and stayed less than 183 days. I’m going to contact the tax department for some sort of statement about all the tax I’ve paid here over the years. I do know that the withholding amounts held by the bank were credited back on my tax each year, so at least the tax office knows I am a tax paying resident of Taiwan. It’s just the idiot banks that have nfi about this stuff.

Two questions:

  • How much income from interest are you earning from banks in Taiwan? For me it’s always very low.

  • As this income gets claimed (and also deducted) on our tax returns, aren’t we as tax residents of Taiwan back to Square One, i.e. our tax payable is calculated on a progressive scale?

In my case, then, if my bank did stunts like this it would not lead to any significant problems. Am I missing something?

Guy

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It’s very low for me too. And the total tax I’ve paid in Taiwan is correct for me, no issue with that. My concern is more around information sharing under the terms of the tax treaty. Specifically, does my home country tax department get fed info that I’m a tax resident of Taiwan or not? So right now I want to collect proof that I’ve been paying tax in Taiwan to head off any future potential problems.

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CTBC called me back ytd and after some back and forth their proposal to fix this is: every year I should go to the branch around june (after 183 days) and declare that I’m a tax resident here. A joke.

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Does anyone know how information sharing works between treaty countries? Presume Taiwan banks will aggregate foreign residents information up to some central government department before it gets reported over to all treaty countries tax offices. Is there anyone here with specific information on how this information sharing works?

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They called me back around 9pm last night asking me to upload a photo of the tax statement. Wonder if it’s the same person dealing with it.

Yeah, it’s not much and anything overpaid is corrected in the tax return (both already discussed in the Richart thread).

Depends if you’re okay with banks deciding unilaterally that foreign residents aren’t actually resident here and are still also/mainly resident in their passport country. If you don’t think that’s an issue, there’s nothing for you to worry about, but that’s what we’re discussing.

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One fellow forumosian @justintaiwan is under investigation from the Australian Taxation Office because of this shit

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It doesn’t really cause many issues in Taiwan except earning less interest because a higher amount is being withheld and sent to the Taiwan tax office. Everything gets reconciled when you do your tax return.

Because Taiwan have decided to incorrectly declare me an Australian tax resident, the ATO is now investigating whether or not I have falsely declared myself as a non-resident because of the CRS data sharing.

I suspect without providing the TIN that the ATO wouldn’t have found me. But Taishin Life tricked me into signing a false CRS form and did have my TIN.

But either way the banks are totally ignoring our CRS declarations and doing whatever they want…. Is there a way to complain to OECD or whoever administers CRS? Taiwan should be kicked out of the agreement

I posted on another thread, I have received 5 withholding statements from different jobs and banks so far. None of them have been completed correctly.

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I have 7 withholding statements from my job. The first six for January to June show me as a non resident. The seventh, covering the second half of the year, shows me as a resident.

I really wish I didn’t give my TIN to the bank. I don’t want to deal with the UK tax office because the bank forced me into a false self declaration.

It goes further than this. I have dealt with 4 of Taiwan’s bilateral/international agreements and Taiwan does not meet its obligations under any.

Working holiday visa
Drivers licence exchange
CRS
Smartgate/E-gate automatic immigration clearance

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What do the ATO want from you to prove you are a Taiwan tax resident?

They are doing their own investigation, I don’t have to do anything. I just got a warning message.

I presume they will check my movement records and won’t care after that. No big deal, but shouldn’t have happened.

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CRS@oecd.org

You could complain here? I just emailed and mentioned they do not require Taiwan citizens to complete CRS, an avoidance scheme? (My husband is a permanent resident of Australia and has never completed a CRS in Taiwan)

I’ll compile my statements and post them here in the coming weeks :slight_smile: busy packing and getting ready to move. If Taiwan wants me to be a foreign resident, I shall become one :slightly_smiling_face:

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I’m going to enquire about getting this in May. 1 May is the start of tax season.

https://www.ntbna.gov.tw/eng/singlehtml/f51eeb815339414391e87a411ee9feb8?cntId=36b56d1c1f7a488b97ca792865f859b3