Tax Refund Came up Short

Hi all,

So this year due to the Wuhan virus, those of us who got a tax refund got it early, July 1st instead of August 1st. That’s all well and good, but it seems my payment is not what I was told at the tax office, this is the first that this has ever happened. I’m not going to say how much exactly I was shorted, but it was nearly 10% less than what had been calculated at the tax office. I usually find that they are efficient and accurate at the tax office, so I am quite surprised, plus I made a litlte more than I did last year so I should get more back. Anyway, just wondering if this has happened to anyone else this year and if they plan to pay the other 10% on August 1st or something like that. I don’t really want to have to make another trip to the tax office and since I can’t speak Chinese, calling them would likely be useless and frustrating.

I didn’t get it early. I think those who filed before the original deadline got it early.

I filed mine at the end of April

Why don’t you head down to the tax office to see what happened? Tell them you want to make sure you do your calculation correctly next year. Then at least you’ll know.

Guy

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I’d be extremely surprised if there was a plan to split the returns. Anyone who filed before the end of May should get their return in July and before the end of June in August.

Making a little more than last year does not necessarily equate to a bigger return, your employer may have have deducted the same amount each month thereby leaving you with less of a return.

Were you asked to bring any additional evidence that they may later have neglected to include?

You could run various calculations (use their downloadable tool) and figure out not including which item amounts to a 10% less return or, easier, just drop down to the tax office with your original tax statement and the bank transfer showing a lesser amount.

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As another point of reference for you; I also got my refund yesterday. The amount was exactly the same as they told me at the tax office.

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The main tax office has good English speakers no?

yeah, but it can be hard to get through to them sometimes. I can give it a go and see what happens.

But yeah, again, let me emphasize that I received 90% of what I was told I would get when I filed at the end of April. So to make it a round figure, let’s say I was told I would get back 10,000, and I only got back just under 9,000.

  1. If you go to the tax office, don’t go around lunch time because then they’ll really try and rush you.

  2. It’s possible that your boss did not pay the correct amount of taxes. In your case 10% less than he should have. I went to do my taxes last week and chose to do it online with their assistance. The sheet my boss gave me with all the tax info stated that I paid a certain amount. But, when we looked at the computer, nothing had been paid. I called up my boss who called up the accountant (who was having lunch). They couldn’t understand why my/their payments hadn’t registered with the tax office. Anyhow, they claimed to have fixed it and that was that. I don’t trust them and will look into it next week again.

Did you fill out your taxes on a long sheet or did you do it online?

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the former

Then I suspect that your boss didn’t declare all of your income and as a result paid less in taxes. One possible question might be is if your boss told you let’s say you made $60000 a month and deducted the appropriate taxes on that but only declared to the government that you made $50000, then what happened to the taxes on the missing $10000? Me being a bit pessimistic would say that someone is probably pocketing the difference. It could also just be that someone fucked up but I don’t trust Taiwanese cram school owners and managers.

You have to look at your monthly income and taxes. Add them up and compare the number to what the tax office has. Is it the same? This issue is not uncommon with cram schools. Any opportunity to save some money or rip you off is often times happily taken advantage of.

Do you get a pay slip of any kind? If so, you always have to compare it to your numbers and the numbers that the tax office has. Somewhere something is off.

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Same

That is great, but is it the amount that you earned the same that your boss reported to the tax office? This is where things are often slightly off. Furthermore, is the amount of taxes your boss deducted the same as the amount he reported? Again, this is where things can be off. I suspect that behind the scenes there are FB/LINE?WeChat groups of cram school owners/managers where they “share” their wonderful business practices with each other maximize profits. One topic that is surely quite popular is, How to screw your foreign employees without them knowing about it. Not all do this, but it is a fairly common practice.

The amount the tax office told me I’d be getting is the same amount I got. I’m still waiting to hear from OP if his work had shady accounting

Did you file online and received it early?
Tax office said because I did it in person, I will only receive it in August. I filed in April.

They will give me a check not a direct deposit.

what the hell? I’ve never heard of that before. did you do your taxes in New Taipei City? probably the case, Taipei office probably gets more qualified people, lol…

I’m sure they also have one where they grouse about uppity foreigners who demand their full legal rights and share info about other “bad teachers.” I’ve always wondered if these constitute slander according to article 309 of the Taiwan criminal code.

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turns out I had a secondary employer whom I forgot about and who didn’t give me a tax paper for last year. went down to the tax office today, everything checks out and adds up.

one more reason I gotta learn Chinese, probably could have settled this with a phone call but that is usually really frustrating as it takes usually takes forever to get someone who both knows what they are doing and speaks English. always easier to do this things in person, much harder to ignore you and easier to get people to collaborate and communicate.

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Glad you sorted this out—even if it took a visit to the tax bureau. Congrats!

Guy

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so I just thought of this… the employer who didn’t take out any tax reported an amount and the tax office took 5%, all of it. however, considering my other income, by tax rate was less than 2%. shouldn’t I have gotten back the approxatimely 3% difference?