Hello all,
I’m Dutch, I came to Taiwan for work and after few years living here I got married to a Taiwanese woman, and have a child. She owns shares in the family companies and have a house on her name here in Taiwan, and in mainland China. I am employed and I just own a house in the Netherlands, nothing in Taiwan under my name.
We are planning to move back to the Netherlands together, but we are afraid this is going to be a costly move, due to the wealth tax in the Netherlands, therefore we are also considering to move to Belgium, As I my company is close to the border. We are looking for advice on how to relocate in the most tax efficient way.
Anyone has a similar situation and can share some stories?
Anyone know a good accountant specialized in Taiwan / Netherlands or Taiwan /Belgium tax that can help us brainstorm the most efficient way to do this?
I can help brainstorm but I’m not an accountant
It depends on:
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Are you both going to take a salary? Where are the companies based in that are paying you? Taiwan has a fixed withholding for non-residents taking a salary, dividend, or any other income from a Taiwan based company. Some other countries do not tax non-residents taking a salary if they perform the services outside the country.
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Are you limited to these countries or are you open to other ones? For example you can establish tax residency in Dubai with only 3 months and that allows you flexibility to do whatever you want with the rest of your time and have 0% tax in your tax residency country. I would stay non resident in other countries per their local laws so you don’t have multiple tax residencies, for example you can stay up to 6 months in Taiwan and maintain non tax residency as a foreigner (there are some caveats to this, such as you shouldn’t take a salary while in Taiwan even if it’s from a foreign company).
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There’s some other creative strategies like setting up a company in a low or no tax jurisdiction, all your vendors pay that company, and that company invests everything on your behalf, so you can separate your own tax residency from your company’s tax residency. If you do this it’s better to stay in a country with no controlled foreign corporation tax rules (such as Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.), so that your offshore company does not get taxed.
I’ll be employed in the Netherlands, and my wife will keep working for her family company (located in Taiwan), but remotly.
We do need to be stable in one country because of my son, I don’t want him to be traveling around.
From my prospective, I’ll be employed in the Netherlands, but I can live (and be tax resident) in Belgium. My son can go to school either in Netherlands ir Belgium, both works for me…
My wife, she obviously will live with us (either in Belgium or Netherlandss) and she could stay imployed in Taiwan, or she could open a branch of her company that employes her in either Belgium or Netherlands… Anyway, she’ll keep working for her company.
We are trying to figure what is the best way, but we are going to be living for the greater part of the year in Netherlands or Belgium… Therefore we’ll be tax resident there
Sounds like you could do with one of those Barle-Hertzog houses with the moveable doors. That would be nice for keeping the options open and smuggling yourself seamlessly back and forth over the border.