I’ve read in this forum that the tax office doesn’t care whether or not people are working illegally. They just want to see taxes paid. Is this information reliable?
I have been given two tax withholding receipts (koujiao pingdan) from two different schools. One is a front for my ARC, the other is where I teach (a high school at which I am not (legally) qualified to teach.)
Do I go ahead and submit both tax forms this month? Or is that going to get me deported for working illegally?
This has been covered elsewhere (but it might be hard to search for).
I have not filed taxes since 2004 (because I’ve left Taiwan) but for the decade-odd before that, I always showed up at the Tax Office with no fewer than five, and usually about nine, koujiao pindan forms. No one ever inquired as to the legality or lack thereof of the income (in fact, given my occupation and activities, I bet no one really knew!) They simply took the money. On one occasion, the lady even helped me to take a higher deduction in one case, where the category of income was “performance” for some reason (I think it was a video or something) and I was entitled to deduct more money for make-up and supplies, or something.
Now, has this changed in the past two or three years? I have no idea. Likely not. The day Immigration, the Tax Office and the CLA link their computer systems will be the day of a grand exodus from Taiwan…
What Ironlady said. They just want your tax money, and won’t question your sources of income. As long as you have the tax withholding forms, they’re happy to process them. They’re also very helpful, and have fixed my errors on my returns nearly every year in my favor. BTW, I normally go in a day or two past the deadline and have never been asked to pay a fine. The lines are much shorter then. 
We have brought this entire matter up in Public Hearings at the Legislative Yuan on several occasions.
The people from the Tax Office just smiled.
(Basically, their position is that they are not in charge of verifying work permits.)
Great, that’s a load off my mind!
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I know this has probably been covered elsewhere but I didn’t find it. In forums like this that probably get a lot of repeat questions on factual issues, an FAQ sticky might be useful for blokes like me who come crawling out of lurker land asking for advice. But that would be labor intensive and hard to keep up to date maybe…
Thanks again! 
[quote=“ironlady”]This has been covered elsewhere (but it might be hard to search for).
I have not filed taxes since 2004 (because I’ve left Taiwan) but for the decade-odd before that, I always showed up at the Tax Office with no fewer than five, and usually about nine, koujiao pindan forms. No one ever inquired as to the legality or lack thereof of the income (in fact, given my occupation and activities, I bet no one really knew!) They simply took the money. On one occasion, the lady even helped me to take a higher deduction in one case, where the category of income was “performance” for some reason (I think it was a video or something) and I was entitled to deduct more money for make-up and supplies, or something.
Now, has this changed in the past two or three years? I have no idea. Likely not. The day Immigration, the Tax Office and the CLA link their computer systems will be the day of a grand exodus from Taiwan…[/quote]
i think you are right. the local Tax Bureau doesnt really care how you got here, why you are here, are you legally here or not? All they want is THEIR MONEY Pay them their money is all they care about. All the rest is some other govt arms problems
Things are a LOT tuffer now, but i remember some years ago an american buddy of mine and i went to the Foreign Affairs police because he had over-stayed his visa by FOUR YEARS. It took about 20mins of waiting before they would/could tell him what will happen. As he and i waited nervously (him not me), they finally summoned him to the desk and told him that since he had paid his taxes like he should for working in tAiwan. All he would have to do is pay a fine for overstaying his visa. NO deportation or anything like that. They even stamped his passport for another sixty day stay. And his fine you ask? 120NT dollars !!! Ahhh those were the days !!!
now we are talking bout DEPORTATION, JAIL, being BANNED from Taiwan (for the amount of time you over-stayed your visa), etc.
Actually i think that the tax office and the foreign affairs police computers are already linked but they dont give you trouble for PAYING your taxes !! That will always count in YOUR favor. The Tax Office wants to make sure people pay their taxes and wont allow their records to be used to DEPORT people for improper use of their ARC and what not, i dont think. But hey? I dont run the TAiwanese govt. so dont blame me if things have changed
you like living on the edge !!
I was about 4 months late filing, had faxed and nearly illegible tax withholding forms and smiled allot. They asked 0 questions, used the computer to tell how many days I was in Taiwan then gave me some ! No fine, no questions. Might have had a fine if I owed them . I love this country.
When I went to the tax office, they did question my sources of income even though I had a valid tax form from my employer. I had worked only about 13 hours a week, sometimes more and sometimes less, and they kept asking a lot of leading questions. They demanded to know if I had worked anywhere else or more hours. They were quite hostile to me. Finally they punched in some numbers into their calculator and said I needed to get a significantly smaller tax refund. I argued with them and she reduced the difference, but unfairly made me pay more taxes for the year. As far as I know, there’s a law for the tax office that does not take into account your tax forms. From now on I will have my wife file for me. I’ll be a lot saner.
When I went to the tax office, they did question my sources of income even though I had a valid tax form from my employer. I had worked only about 13 hours a week, sometimes more and sometimes less, and they kept asking a lot of leading questions. They demanded to know if I had worked anywhere else or more hours. They were quite hostile to me. Finally they punched in some numbers into their calculator and said I needed to get a significantly smaller tax refund. I argued with them and she reduced the difference, but unfairly made me pay more taxes for the year. As far as I know, there’s a law for the tax office that does not take into account your tax forms. From now on I will have my wife file for me. I’ll be a lot saner.[/quote]
the problem here is that they dont believe you only worked 13 hours a week. They dont think you can survive on that, and dont think that you didnt get extra undeclared income by private teaching. Its like a wild chicken cab ride (remember the wild chicken cabs?) where you negotiate the fare depending on how many of you there are and the distance, the meter not withstanding. TheTaiwan Tax Bureau is like that. Its subject to negotiation if they dont believe your story (as provided by your tax withholding statements). Taiwan Tax people rarely do a traditional audit on anyone, they audit you right there and then basically.
I received a tax statement today that I thought I wouldn’t be receiving. Is the situation still about the same? As long as you pay your taxes, the Tax Office is happy?
Yes, the tax office will be happy, but you eventually might have trouble renewing your work permit with your employer, particularly if you ever plan to apply for an APRC.
I think the CLA may be checking to see that your taxed income matches that of your employer’s contract – I recently heard the story of a foreigner who had trouble getting her work permit renewed b/c the numbers didn’t match up. If I recall correctly, the person was earning more on her taxes than her employer contract had stated.
What for-a-samosa said. The Council of Labor Affairs has been checking tax statements when people renew their work permits, and if the taxes paid don’t match the contracted income for the job on your work permit, you’re in trouble with the CLA. So if you pick up a second job, make sure you have a work permit for it, and make sure it’s added onto your ARC. Otherwise don’t take the 2nd job. At least two Forumosans have experienced some grief over this. This wouldn’t be a problem if you have a marriage-based JFRV with an ARC based in turn on that, however.
So the Tax office might not be a problem, but you may still end up with a big problem, including (potentially) a whopping fine for you and your employer (I have heard of a threat of an NT$700,000 fine), and refusal to renew your work permit (so no basis for you to stay in the country).
Thanks for the replies. How exact do they have to match up? I did a marketing interview that paid around 6000 NT, will something like that make them start inquiries, or is that not a big deal?
I’m getting married in a few months, so getting in trouble with the police isn’t something that’s going to make things convenient for me. Maybe I should start the paperwork now for the marriage ARC? Any ideas, or am I just blowing this out of proportion?
Get married quick !!! Taiwan wants all foreigners living there to get married PRONTO
OR else !!!
Not sure. They might let one minor discrepancy go; but on the other hand, one 'mosan applying for permanent resident status was denied, based on an NT$2000 one-off payment, and the kicker is that this was a service provided to the ROC government!
When does your current work permit expire?
It wouldn’t hurt to start your paperwork early. Be sure to study the relevant thread in the Marriage forum, make a list of what you need to do (starting with requesting a notarized letter from your hometown police stating that you have no criminal record).
Oh, and if the public marriage is in a few months, there’s nothing stopping you from doing the notarial marriage earlier than that.
Thanks for the advice, Dragonbones. I’ll probably start the paperwork for the marriage now just to be safe.
thanks for the info! i’ll be filing late this year and was a bit worried that there might be a problem, though figured there wouldn’t be.
