The problem is. It is not about the regulation. Rather how it has been interpreted by the tax office.
Yeah, fine — regulations, interpretation, whatever. You knew what I meant. We’ve discussed this at length. The point is that I doubt banks will be willing to use “TW” if the authority responsible for this can fine them when they complete the forms this way for people who aren’t considered tax-resident under the current practice.
It is the banks job to push the boundaries of interpretations and take them to court if necessary. The problem is that the banks in Taiwan can’t be fucked doing it.
Okay, but that doesn’t really help with this situation, does it? There isn’t much we can do about that…
No. But I was explaining my opinion on why these “competent authorities” are essentially able to push whatever rule they want and what ultimately needs changing in Taiwan.
These complaints from many put pressure on the banks to start to realise the interpretation isn’t making sense and maybe at some point a lawyer at the bank (wanting to better his career and make a name for himself) might challenge the regulators on it.
That’s all well and good. But what will be a punishment (if any)? A slap on the wrist? Reassignment to another position of authority?
Overall it seems that Taiwan is not “rule of law” as they don’t follow the law or don’t read it for what it is. Rather Taiwan is “rule of power” whereas if you’re the authority you have the power to interpret the rules how you see fit and do what you want.
Ah, fair enough. I see your point.
It seems to me like tax residency issues for resident foreigners is another of those situations where the “competent” authority just bumbled their way through without thinking of the consequences and trying to at least keep things internally consistent.
Fortunately, it appears that the Taipei tax office has now kind of backed itself into a corner by confirming that “TW” is correct for foreigners only tax-resident here. I don’t see a logical way for them to stick to this in the first 183 days of each year without either presuming residency for long-term foreigners (violating their interpretation of “domicile”), using the code for the person’s passport country (wrong, but wouldn’t surprise me), using “ZZ” for “unknown”, or leaving the thing blank. I guess that’s an issue for next year though.
Also, I was kind of toying with the idea of a freedom of government information request along the lines of the following (the wording/order/logic isn’t perfect — probably needs some work):
- How many foreign nationals were tax-resident in Taiwan in year x as defined in Article 7 of the Income Tax Act, i.e., stayed >183 days?
- How many tax withholding statements were submitted by banks for foreign nationals?
- How many tax withholding statements were submitted by banks for foreign nationals residing in Taiwan as defined in Article 7 of the Income Tax Act?
- How many of these tax withholding statements for resident foreign nationals were submitted by banks with the correct Tax Jurisdiction Code of “TW”?
- How many of these tax withholding statements for resident foreign nationals were submitted by banks with a different Tax Jurisdiction Code, such as that of their passport country?
I might just be being difficult here though. 
Taishin just called me again, at 7:10 p.m. on a Friday night, to say they’d finished updating their system and my next tax withholding statement will say “TW” and that I’ve been here for >183 days. 
I might go annoy CTBC next week. 
I’ve been checking my mailbox the last several days to see whether Taishin would indeed mark me as “TW” on my next tax withholding statement — usually they come around the 20th of each month.
It hasn’t arrived yet. I’m starting to think they’re just not going to send me them now. 
Still haven’t received this lol. Almost two weeks later than usual now.
It really looks like Taishin’s solution to this problem was to stop sending me the withholding statements. What a joke! 
To be fair, I think said statement will only be sent out if you’re not categorized as a Taiwan tax resident.
You could check whether they stopped withholding tax on the interest payments.
I’m not sure why that would be? Don’t they send it out to everyone?
This doesn’t help though, because they’ve sent me it consistently before even when they didn’t withhold anything (because I didn’t have really any money in the account and just got a few dollars of interest).
I could be imagining things, but I think I remember reading somewhere (?) that those statements are only sent out in case one is not solely a Taiwan tax resident (the rationale being that for Taiwan tax residents the data is already shared with the tax bureau electronically - while others might need the statement to potentially declare the interest income with the respective tax authorities).
Maybe it’s time to put in some money then. For science
(I think I reive about 5$ in interest with them per month of which 1$ is being withheld).
That’s interesting, thanks. Though I wonder whether that’s just Cathay explaining what it does? I believe some banks do it electronically anyway and aren’t required to issue the certificates as a result.
It would be interesting though if that’s why I haven’t received it. I hadn’t thought of that. But then why include the “residency” option on the forms at all…?
Yeah, same here. I should have done — I just forgot about it in October until it was too late to make a difference. I only really use that account to pay rent and for JKOPay. I think I got 3 TWD in interest or something like that, where nothing gets withheld even at 20%.
I hate when they do that. It messes with my attempts to compound my interest!
Guy
I think all banks need to submit the data electronically to the tax bureau in Taiwan. I think Richart does that, too.
They refer to Article 94-1 of the Income Tax Act which states the following (not sure if that’s an AND or OR between condition 1 and 2):
Where an organization, non-departmental public body, institution, school, enterprise, administrator of bankruptcy estate, practitioner of profession, trustee of a trust deed, or other withholder required to issue the non-withholding tax statements, withholding tax statements, and other relevant statements stipulated in Paragraph 3 of Article 89, Paragraph 1 of Article 92, and Article 92-1 has submitted such statements to the tax authority by the deadline and the content of such statements meet the following conditions, the aforesaid entity may be exempt from issuing the statements to the taxpayers:
- The taxpayer is an individual residing in the Republic of China, profit-seeking enterprise having fixed place of business in the Republic of China, organization, institution, professional practitioner, or trustee of a trust deed.
- The data on such statements has been included in the income information provided for the taxpayers by the tax authorities during the period for the filing of income tax returns.
- Other situations prescribed by the MOF.
Those who are exempt from issuing the statements to taxpayers according to the preceding paragraph shall still issue the statements to the taxpayers if requested.
If I remember right, Richart always said “Residency: No” on all statements. Which would require them to issue them in the first place. Now that the “issue” has been fixed for you, they’re no longer sending the statement (because it’s no longer required).
Maybe they actually fixed the issue for all foreigners (or they finally realized how much they spent on postage) - I also haven’t received a statement yet, I think…
I meant only electronically, or rather that they don’t seem to send out the statements to customers.
I wasn’t referring to Richart specifically here but rather all banks, and the forms themselves. They have an option for the residency field to be completed “yes”, which is pointless if the forms are only sent to people where the field is completed “no”.
The law says that you can still request a form even if you didn’t receive one automatically 
Taishin updated my tax residency to “TW” in April and I haven’t received any tax withholding statements in the mail since.