did you ask what is the 42k?
I assume you are not subject of labor standard act, and the severance pay is for one-way air ticked to US. What is the typical or cheapest cost? I’m not sure why you say the severance is 20d.
Is it possible that the tuition fee for the classes you are supposed to teach by the original contract is deducted?
I did in fact ask. The monies were to included one month’s salary up to the 27th of April (or 20 instructional days) along with 20 days of severance pay. The severance was not for a one-way ticket to the US as could have been purchased for $21,000 NTD. Being that I had lost my passport (I’ve since had it replaced), leaving the country was not an alternative.
The reason I said that the severance pay was 20 days is that this is what the director of the department of foreign languages told me. As far as tuition fees for classes that were missed, these were initially addressed as SUB FEES that I had to make arrangements for to pay my subs. Since I was removed from classes, the school re-assigned my classes to other teachers who were being compensated by the school for having done so.
I was under no obligation at that point to continue paying sub-fees once the classes were re-assigned.
Perhaps you should edit personal information in your posts.
You don’t want this coming back to bite you as breach of confidentiality 
Funny how it works that way. I I guess tomorrow at close of business I will post all of the info again.
There might not be anything wrong here.
What was the income tax deduction on your previous pay statements? The one posted makes sense if they’ve been withholding only 5% (under ~4k each month) and now that you’re definitely not going to hit the 183 days, they’re clawing back the 13% owed for the other 3 months. (You’ll need to check your pay stubs but 33,468 for 3 months means avg 85k gross/month, does that sound right?)
It doesn’t look like the severance has been taxed, so that’s fine.
Your main sticking point is going to be the amount of severance. Does your job fall under the “Labor Pensions Act” or the “Labor Standards Act?” Your employer has linked to the first one, which specifies that your severance is a half month’s pay per every full year employed (or prorated, in your case they’re saying you will have been there 9 months). The Standards Act says the severance should be a full month’s pay per full year employed.
Does the APRC put you under the Pensions Act?
Are you:
2.Foreigners, people of China, Hong Kong or Macao residents who married ROC nationals having a registered household in the Republic of China, and who have residency status and are permitted to work in Taiwan area;
ETA: typos
I did the same calculation, and wondered what is the number. Maybe there was some extra payment?
If tax is overpaid, that money will come back to you, so no need to worry about that part so much.
They clawed back the money that was taxed at 5% and claimed a tax gap of 13% to make up for January - April. My APRC is on my own standing and I have not left Taiwan in four years. I’m getting quite sick of dealing with the Taiwanese way of doing business.
JMT
I agree with @manganate
I looked the numbers over and did the math. It all looks on the up and up. It’s the payback of the difference between 5% and 18% where the big deduction is coming from and that is the employers legal right.
Look over the contract again and see if it mentions anywhere about payback of taxes should employment be terminated early. It should explain there.
It doesn’t. Looked carefully over it. They are doing this based on the supposition that I may leave. However, as an APRC holder… I know I could be gone for up to two years… fill out an extension and my APRC would still be valid.
Look, there were some pretty OK things this employer did. They helped out when needed. But this is one instance where they didn’t have to deduct back taxes from paychecks based on the preponderance that I may leave the country. In fact, as a former employer…with my own work permit and APRC it’s really not their business. I get what they did… fine…
But come tax time, all of it will come back to me anyway. So why do this silly shuffle of monies other than to cause trouble and add insult to injury? I’ll say nothing bad about the people, the facilities, the faculty, the administration, et cetera. However, the ACTIONS were questionable.
It would have been far simpler to leave on more amicable terms being that it was a medical issue… not a disciplinary issue. I’d received good marks on evaluations, not been spoken to about poor teaching practiced, was helpful (even as a techie for the foreign teachers) and have many people at the school who hold me in high regard. They know what happened. They are sad about these circumstances… an aunt being diagnosed with brain cancer and a personal matter that led to being hospitalized.
Like I said… the people, the place, the facilities… OK. This action… not so cool.
JMT I
I don’t think so, after you leave, they don’t know if you will stay over 183d or not. You are on APRC, so you can stay, but you may leave too. They don’t know. It is not their business. They just avoid the worst case for them that you leave without paying the extra 13%.
I’ve lived here a few years, have an APRC and work for a large multinational. They still withhold 18% the first six months, dropping it down to 5% the second half of the the year. It is within their rights to do so and probably prudent as a company policy. Nothing to do with me, but they need to protect themselves and I understand that they can’t have a different rule for me because they think I’m a swell guy. I think you ought to let that part go.
Nothing I can do. It sucks. It happened. Fight is over. At least it will come back at tax time. I UT it’s kind of a bummer that they did so on the preponderance that I’d be leaving the country…which with the meager salary + severence I was given is looking like a grim possibility. I’ve got an open work permit… an APRC… and I need work RIGHT NOW.
There is something pending in Southern Taiwan… paying more… a better facility… but the aim is to move out of teaching. I didn’t set out in life to be a teacher… it was a way to get a job off the airplane for the woman I initially moved here with. I stuck it out and white-knuckled a lot of hard things here in Taipei… even facing homelessness.
Its been rough. March was the hardest month I’ve had in a long time. It would be nice to be in the sunshine again…
JMT
That’s 20% and not 18%? 
Fixed
Hi JMT,
The way the tax system works, nothing that happened before January 1st matters. You could have lived here for 50 years, and it would be the same.
Regarding the housing allowance, the contract clearly states that it’s included in the salary, so there’s no issue there. Just make sure the severance pay is calculated from the full salary, not the salary minus the housing allowance.
Speaking of that calculation, it appears to be 37.5% of your monthly salary. How long have you had the job?
And have you talked to the labor department about whether or not the LSA applies to you? (Just go to City Hall at Banqiao and explain that you have a problem with your employer and want to sit down and talk to someone. If you have the patience, they may turn out to be very helpful. They also have free lawyers available for brief consultations during certain hours/days, which should be stated on the City’s website.)
I don’t think it’s necessary for the contract to state that, though it would be courteous of them to explain it.
Some of the language here is unwieldy and difficult to understand. However, I do not believe my employment falls under these stipulations. I can say, that as a convenience…NONE of the employees at the school are being taxed at the 18% rate mentioned in the contract. They are nailing me on “back taxes” with the preponderance that I will leave Taiwan. As a person with an APRC, I am free to do so at will - and as long as I meet the requirements to maintain my APRC, there should be no back taxes withheld.
There is nothing in the contract that mentions this. I would post screenshots, but I don’t want them to track this topic (as they’ve already done) and get me on the hook for a breach of confidentiality.
I’ve removed the name of the school…and all screenshots of payslips, tax-forms and sections of the contract. But it should be known that in this situation, they made it seem as if they were doing me a favor.
When I got sick they took me to the hospital and paid the initial cost of seeing a psychiatrist. The second trip to the hospital, wherein I voluntarily committed myself to an emergency psychiatric ward. They did not. I hadn’t been eating or sleeping, and I knew I needed help. I went to the hospital to get “rest”. They found blood in my urine and stool (because my body was eating itself to stay alive) and an abnormally high red blood cell and white blood cell count.
Yes…it’s a bit too much info. But it was in fact a medical condition considering people at work were commenting on how fast I was losing weight. In the exit interview, I was asked to not say anything negative about the school and threatened with “defamation”. As I understand, defamation involves slanderous remarks about a person or organization that are NOT true. In this situation, the remarks were not slanderous…nor were they untrue. These things really did take place.
Perhaps I could have been more careful in censoring out my name and the school’s name, but I was trying to prepare for another appointment and was in a rush. My mistake for being so hasty in trying to provide as much information as possible.
I agree to some extent. But the last time I found myself in a situation like this, the school paid one month’s salary (in full) along with another month of severance pay at the standard 5% tax rate they had take all year.
While they may have been legally in the “right” to do so, they did not have to do it. Considering that up until March when this “crash” happened I was a very good employee. I was well-liked by staff, students, administration and students. I did a good job…redesigned their grade-books…helped others with technical problems despite not being paid for this work.
They could have been more gracious…and in looking at a final pay of 91K being whittled down to 42K, is just so disheartening. What am I supposed to do with that other than fly back? I know it is Taiwan, but a bit more compassion could have been shown.
Sorry, I should have explained this more clearly.
If you are in one of the categories that the Ministry of Labor deems “workers”, the Labor Standards Act applies to your job, so it determines the minimum severance pay and so on, and whenever the contract gives you less than the LSA, the LSA prevails.
If you’re not in one of those categories, the contract prevails (assuming it doesn’t violate any other laws such as the Civil Code, the Labor Insurance Act etc.).
When the contract exceeds the minimum standards set by whatever the applicable law is, the contract prevails.
You can find English translations (sometimes good, sometimes quite sloppy) here – Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (Taiwan) – but it’s a confusing system where this law affects that law and so on, so it’s best to talk to a lawyer or a specialist at the local labor department. The first thing you need to find out is, are you in a category covered by the LSA or not? If the person you ask isn’t sure, mention that the MOL added some (but not all) private school teachers to the list of “workers” a few years ago; it depends on the details of your contract, so bring a copy of the contract with you. If your “school” is technically a buxiban (it happens), then you’re covered.
Regarding taxation, my assessment of the situation is that they’re not doing anything illegal, regardless of your APRC, but of course asking a lawyer is a good idea.
If you can’t reach a settlement with the school on your own, you can ask the labor department to arrange formal mediation (勞資爭議調解). Anyone can request this, whether or not the LSA applies. This is a free service. If both parties reach a settlement during mediation and sign it in the presence of the mediator, that’s the end of the dispute – there will be no trial. If no settlement is reached, at least you walk away with a better understanding of the situation.
You can choose to have someone at the labor department act as the mediator (recommended), or you can ask them to appoint an outside mediator (faster but lower standard of service).
If your medical condition makes it difficult for you to deal with this now, you can come back and deal with it later. Basically, you have two years to make a claim.
If the school has been doing other dodgy stuff, you can file a complaint at the Labor Inspection Office or whatever they’re calling it now. The last time I checked, the New Taipei LIO was out in Tucheng. If you’re going to go down that road, be sure you know what you’re talking about; they want clear and specific violations of the law that are within their mandate and easy to prove.
if the person reads Chinese, this page explains it.
https://www.mol.gov.tw/service/19851/19852/19858/14610/