Basically my suggestion (as a CPA) is every time you go back to Germany you write down a small travel itinerary and document it. I.e. day one visit… day 2, go to …
That way you can ensure that you will be safe
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So as you can see he was staying for a time just a little shorter than the residence test. He also had all of his belongings there AND the key to the place that wasn’t used by anyone else. This is a clear cut case of blatant tax avoidance.
If I did the same in Australia… I would also be considered a tax resident under Australian laws.
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Just another useful tip. Write it down with a pen and paper and take a photo of it. (that way the photo will have the metadata of the date and time it was taken so you can prove it wasn’t just made up)
I think we’re actually not that far apart in terms of what we’re saying.
Just too much information online stating “Oh, if you stay less than 183 days in a country, then don’t worry about taxes” - for some countries, that might be true. For Germany (and many others) it’s not.
Taishin bank just called me to apologize for what happened yesterday and I again mentioned sending out an email for more information and not a rejection email.
They might call you to apologize.
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Yeh, these people often get away with it as it’s difficult to prove unless the person is a citizen.
Taiwan has a domicile law too that technically applies to foreigners… but they don’t enforce it. (They use household registration as a basis of the test, but no law actually states that ‘domicile’ = ‘household registration’ and to further prove my point, someone with household registration in Taichung but lives in Taipei will be counted as ‘domiciled’ in Taipei…)
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Oh, on that note: Someone (it was a guy, so definitely not Amy) called me about an hour ago and asked me some familiar questions:
- Do you have household-registration in Taiwan?
- Do you have household-registration in another country?
- How many days do you stay in Taiwan?
- Do you have health insurance in Taiwan?
- Do you have a business in Taiwan?
- Do your spouse or children live in Taiwan?
They’ll now forward my answers to a “specialist” and then decide about the account.
I think that’s what’s happening here, too… 
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we have sometimes the same issue too in Italy, where there is a super similar system of household registration.
The hukou is where you are indeed registered and where you can vote, access to all the public services for the resident population and have your registered GP.
However, you can be domiciled elsewhere where you can also have your registered GP, but have less public services and cannot vote. However, the domicile address cannot be shown on documents (like the ID), that will always be your household registered address.
So many people don’t know the difference and get f’d up when elections or tenders for like public housing come up. Many are not eligible since they are just domiciled like in Milan, but still technically residents say in Rome, so cannot access to the full plethora of Milan services. This is for citizens, for foreign residents not EU citizens is even worse, for EU citizen slightly better.
And then us citizens resident abroad is so funny, we are nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
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