I heard from a relative that many Taiwanese young people are opening bank accounts in Singapore to benefit from a tax “grey zone”. I couldn’t find any information of what it is specifically; have any of you heard of something like this?
I’m not planning on doing this btw 
just curious whether that’s a real thing.
never heard of it…
It’s possible he’s referring to Singapore being a useful choice for registering a business. I’m not sure of the details, but apparently there are some administrative benefits in doing this. Corporation tax in Taiwan is pretty low regardless, but the antiquated bureaucracy means that even small businesses have to hire accountants as bullshit shields. I imagine it’s somewhat simpler if you’re operating as a representative office or similar structure.
From my understanding, the “grey zone” is mostly tax fraud: By getting your salary paid in a Singaporean bank account, the authorities in Taiwan won’t know about it - if you don’t declare it in Taiwan, the tax authorities won’t know about it and it’s “tax free”.
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its probably not for salaried employees, but more beneficial for companies. Many TW companies are branches of overseas companies for this reason.
It can work for salaried employees too: The employee works for a Taiwanese company, but is employed by a Singaporean company. The employer will skip all the required insurance (health, pension, …) and the employee receives their salary untaxed in their Singaporean bank account.
Of course, it’s something that an employee can’t set up by themselves - but some companies might be encouraging (or actually forcing) their employees to follow that model.
And probably the company will mention somewhere that it’s the employee’s obligation to do all the taxes while at the same time they will tell their employees about that “gray area” and how it’s actually beneficial for their employees to get paid like that…
Are we talking about the same TW companies that force you to open an account with their bank to get your salary :)?
TW employers are too stingy to cover the 15nt remittance fee and do not allow you to open an account at the bank of your choice, i dont see them sending payroll to SG bank accounts.
If you want to not pay taxes in Taiwan there are much easier ways than a SG bank account.
As I said: They will “save” labor insurance and health insurance contributions. And they can advertise a higher net salary because no taxes are being taken out.
And most likely they already have some presence in Singapore - so for them almost no additional administrative effort.