If you decide to stay for another year in the same school, you can talk to them and ask them not to do it anymore. I did that and they agreed.
But they don’t have to not do it.
If you’re here (at least on an aprc) they shouldn’t be doing it at all.
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I have been working in Taiwan for more than three years. They did that twice however the second time I asked them not to and they changed from 18% to 5%.
You’re lucky. Many don’t do this
Yes but if you are “domiciled” in Taiwan according to the regulations you shouldn’t come under that rule
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So you want to get APRCs immediately.
No because despite the law listing “domicile” as a requirement . And despite the tax office using a different definition for people living and working in different cities to their household registration…
They count APRC as not having a domicile in Taiwan. (Yes, even if you own a home, have kids, wife, job etc…)
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Taiwan’s laws do not require tax withholding. In order to protect themselves in the unlikely event that you leave Taiwan before you become a tax resident and leave the employer with your tax obligation, your school has made the deliberate choice to withhold an excessive amount of money from your paycheck. Although it is an unnecessarily cautious approach, it is not against the law. After six months, they will change to the standard withholding rate for tax residents, which is 5%. The school just deducting 5% won’t be a problem if you intend to stay more than six months next year.
So you just want to come to tw, declare that you live there and not be taxed 18% for your first six months
This is not that unreasonable.
You’re an Australian resident if your domicile (the place that is your permanent home) is in Australia, unless we are satisfied that your permanent place of abode is outside Australia . A domicile is a place that is considered to be your permanent home by law.
The most important thing to consider when determining your residency status in Canada for income tax purposes is whether or not you maintain, or you establish, significant residential ties with Canada.
If you’ve been in New Zealand for more than 183 days in any 12-month period, you’re considered to be a New Zealand tax resident from the first of the 183 days . The 183 days don’t have to be consecutive.
Your tax residence status depends on the number of days you are present in Ireland during a tax year.
You are resident in Ireland for tax purposes if you are present in Ireland for:
- 183 days or more in a tax year
- or
- 280 days or more in total, taking the current tax year plus the preceding tax year together. You will not be resident in Ireland if you are here for 30 days or less in a tax year.
I think @comfy123 ‘s point is that ‘domiciled’ is treated unfairly between citizens and non-citizens by the tax office when the legal fact does not discriminate.
Other countries deal with this in a fairer way irrespective of citizenship. The ATO explicitly mentions that it’s definition of residency is different to that of the Department of Home Affairs
Also having tax withheld at 18% for the first 6 months is at the discretion of your employer. I have never had 0.1% tax withheld let alone 18%. It’s not normal for an employer to decide how much to withhold
That’s the norm for people who make a country their “domicile”
Domicile doesn’t mean household registration as admitted by the Taiwan tax office as consider people working and living in different cities to their original household registration as domiciled in the city they live in
Also I think an arc/APRC with an address on it means you are “domiciled” at that address… are you telling me that you don’t live here?
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Again. They’re not going to change that because their intention is to prevent abuse.
What abuse are we talking about?
All those foreigners that work here for an income and then flee so they don’t need to pay the full 18% taxes to never come back.
That is much much smaller than you think. In fact the real tax evaders are the so called “digital nomads” who are on gold cards or endless visa waivers. Those people are notorious tax evaders, either through ignorance or the knowledge that Taiwan hasn’t got the smarts to go after them…
Also if said foreigners who “flee” were “tax residents“ during that time… then what is the problem? If they were withheld the correct amount… (5% or whatever) there wouldn’t be a problem anyway… in fact! They would likely have a tax refund!! and would be stupid to flee without lodging a tax return!
You will get a large part of it back. But, you need to keep careful track of how much they deduct and how much they actually declare. I would like to assume that if you’re working for a public school, then that shouldn’t be a problem. Cram schools, that’s a different issue. At the end of the day, when it comes to money, trust no one. Especially as a foreigner in Taiwan.
Bullshit (yet again).
The real tax evaders, I strongly suspect, are people like landlords not declaring their rental income and businesses underdeclaring. IIRC, you’ve suggested this about digital nomads and gold card holders more than once.
If you’ve got some evidence to indicate that a significant proportion of gold card holders aren’t paying the taxes they should or that these and any other digital nomads account for a significant proportion of lost taxes in Taiwan, feel free to correct me.
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I was being sarcastic. I do not think it is a big problem.
Actually I did report one person who on a Facebook argument told me to report him and gave me his details! He learnt the hard way.
I also got the government to actually check those on tourists visas after I reported him.
Basically to explain the background I mentioned about how after 183 days those on visa waivers will have to pay tax on worldwide income and had multiple people working online telling me that because they didn’t have residence cards they didn’t have to pay tax… one was so sure that he even DARED me to report him… which I did… and then the government told immigration to start making more checks. (Including those who leave and come back but total 183 days in a year)
Actually the amount caught was staggering.
I don’t have the data on the gold card… but I would presume the numbers would be large considering that many don’t understand the law’s entirely and the tax office here don’t really ask on it…
Wow, I thought you had a chip on your shoulder about this topic, but if true that’s quite the dick move IMO. 
I’m not sure why the government would be sharing that information with you, but good on you I guess [/s] for getting the government to go after a minority of tax-evading foreigners rather than an overwhelming majority of tax-evading Taiwanese. 
In either case, I still don’t see how it’s any of your business, unless it’s just an enjoyment of being malicious and causing problems for others.
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