So I guess the lesson here is to not give any sort of foreign taxpayer identification information to banks in Taiwan.
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Is happened to me on stock dividends. And the bank told me I will have to send a letter to each place that manage each of the shares I own to proof then than I’m resident.
Even if I didn’t provide any TIN to HSBC, they still put me as non resident and just put “TIN not provided”
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OK that’s easy to deal with.
That’s not good at all! Now I get it. I hope this gets resolved in your favour, pronto.
Guy
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Knowing the banks they will just batch all foreigners names along with the country of their passports and ship the data over anyway. It’s not their problem then and they figure they won’t get any blowback from CRS that way.*
- Does not apply for Taiwanese foreign passport holders
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Exactly, anyone with household registration in Taiwan who is LIVING permanently abroad or even picks up a second citizenship (THE PEOPLE THAT CRS IS MEANT FOR) won’t be asked any questions…
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I suppose in most cases even if your bank blabs to the tax office in your home country, you’ll be fine provided you can prove residency in Taiwan (NIA entry/exit data, proof of an ARC/APRC etc).
Still, I appreciate that this is super unfair as it seems to protect Taiwanese that want the benefits of all their passports but don’t want to contribute.
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ofc, but it’s still an inconvenience.
I can make the example of Italy, it is on the tax authority the burden of proof that you need to pay taxes, not on you to prove that you don’t need, there is a presumption of innocence and compliance. Also, for Italy, as long as you are registered as a “national resident abroad”, it is unlikely they’ll come after you if not actual work or financial activity is in Italy.
As always, chabuduo…
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The key theme here lol.
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I’ve received a response from them:
Regarding your incorrect withholding statement for a bank account, there is no way to tell the bank to correct your incorrect withholding statement.
The bank can not judge whether your are resident or non-resident during the whole year beause they can not access your entry and depart records.
Don’t worry. When you file your tax return. we will calculate the correct tax payable amout. If the bank withheld the wrong withholding tax, we will get you tax refund or decuct your tax amount.
I hope it will solve your problem.
What I understand from that is that the tax office basically agrees with the banks that the resident status of foreigners (regarding Taiwan) has to be determined every year based on entry records…
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It shouldn’t be according to the actual statute. Anyone with a “domicile” 住所 and has a job etc is a tax resident.
I mentioned it in this thread before Taiwan tax residency laws clarification - #6
However, they take 住所 as meaning household registration 戶籍 which common sense dictates the two are completely different and no law equates the two.
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That might at least partially explain the bank’s standpoint: If a foreigner is only a resident in Taiwan (for tax purposes) after they have stayed in Taiwan for over 183 days in that particular year, it is somewhat understandable that the banks “invent” a residency in the country of citizenship because otherwise there would be no residency in any country (and they probably couldn’t open an account in that case, I would assume?). In that case, I would argue to primarily blame the tax authorities…
It’s just ridiculous that they issue “ARCs” and then foreigners are technically without residency anywhere (from a tax purpose) in the first half of the year…
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You can theoretically not be a tax resident in any country so I don’t think that’s a valid reason
What’s happening with the banks is a different issue.
It’s a misunderstanding of CRS laws and believing that citizenship = tax residency in which even for Taiwanese it doesn’t
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exactly, but that would add a level of confusion the typical bank official here would not comprehend creating a singularity in their brain leading to their implosion
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Yeah, but would banks (practically) still be allowed to open a bank account for you if that’s the case? (With all those regulations on anti-money-laundering, information exchange, …).
From what I know, banks in most countries wouldn’t even touch you with a ten foot-pole if you declare yourself as having no tax-residency anywhere in the world…
My point being: I would assume the banks would act differently if the tax-office didn’t have this particular way of defining residency for foreigners…
Yes but that’s why banks in Taiwan generally require you to have proof a local job in Taiwan.
I believe it looks to them like one of the test FIs apply to businesses to ascertain if they have substance in the jurisdiction.
Like in HK they basically all require the director to be HK resident and have an actual office with staff in the region to have substantive business there, they basically never onboard shelf/shell companies with non-resident director and just registered addresses/PO boxes.
That’s why companies like mine thrive now, we do not require that to open you business accounts.
So for TW banks, local employment is a strong residency test, but can be overcome with some “persuasion”.
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I’ve been able to successfully open accounts with E.Sun, Cathay and Richart without having a local job. Cathay still wanted to see payslips, but they did accept non-local ones (although those had my address here in Taiwan on them).
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I didn’t have an issue opening an account without a local employer at any of the four Taiwanese banks I have accounts at. I expected it might be a problem, but it wasn’t at all.
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I had success with many banks: Cathay, CTBC, Fubon, Post office, HSBC and Richart. All with foreign employment (my employer is in HK). I just showed them my appointment letter, thankfully in Chinese and with company stamp (which in HK is not a mandatory requirement, but asked HR to affix).
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