I am pretty sure those Foreign Talents will be of enormous and unique difference to Taiwan. Something that we, mortal foreigners, will never be able to achieve in the spectrum of helpfulness to the Taiwan society.
Hey, it is not either/or! Let’s aim higher for both/and.
Guy
I have an ARC and own my own place. Didn’t even have it for the full 5 years before fully permanent either.
Wow. Quite the read. All 480 posts in one sitting - my brain is going to explode with information - very useful and interesting though.
We will have to see how it works in the next few years.
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Here is a question - let’s say a person has a fair amount of experience in the education field previously, but has been making their 160+NT in the last few years in a different field, how would that work exactly in relation to the gold card application? ( Especially if that is the only way that person would qualify for the Gold Card)
Hi all,
I recently had reason to look into how the tax benefit applies to people who aren’t ‘new’ to Taiwan. As a refresher - the benefit is: for the portion of your salary over NT $3 million, half of it can be excluded from income for your first three years. eg Salary NT $6 million, you only pay tax on NT $4.5 million.
Previously, I did confirm with the NIA that people who have stayed in Taiwan more than 3 consecutive years and then switch to a gold card definitely aren’t eligible for any tax benefits. However, could someone could get tax relief after receiving a gold card in their 2nd or 3rd year of residing in Taiwan for work?
Unfortunately, it seems that the answer is no - despite some information to the contrary coming up during the promotion events.
The relevant regulations are here: https://law.moj.gov.tw/eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=G0340150
You can see in Article 3 that you need 3 ticks to be eligible:
- First time coming to work
- It’s special professional work
- No household registration (only applicable to ROC nationals) and not a tax resident for the prior 5 years
With the exception that:
“If a foreign special professional has been previously approved to reside in the R.O.C. before his/her employment engaged in the professional work in the R.O.C., and such approval is not given on the ground of his/her engagement in the professional work, he/she shall not be subject to the first-time approval requirement…”
(which is unclear – but probably means, someone who was here to study, or some other residence reason rather than a subtle difference between a “foreign professional” and a “foreign special professional”)
So, since people would likely pay taxes in their first or second year and would be here on a work permit, they fail on two of the requirements to get the special professional tax relief.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, immigration agent, etc and haven’t checked this with any kind of official. Get real advice and please don’t rely on this for tax planning 
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In the application process you need to first choose:
- which specific field (sci/tech, economics, education, cultura, sport, finance, law, architecture) the application is under
- which specific category (eg salary >160k) in that field the applicant qualifies under
they’re drop-down lists in the online portal and you can only choose one. It appears as though the process is set up so that only one ministry will be responsible for the skills vetting.
If “fair amount of experience” doesn’t translate to any of the eligibility categories in education, then the application may be better done under the ‘different’ field.
The alternative would be to call the Education ministry (official contact list here: https://foreigntalentact.ndc.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=D927ED39BDAE7478&s=DA2F7BC919B77E24 ), explain the situation and see if they’d be happy to take your friend anyway.
Any idea why the law category is the only one that you must fulfill all of the requirements, instead of just one? It seems strange.
Have long wondered Architecture also looks like it’s in the same boat.
Would be great if someone could call the relevant ministry and ask. For now, my pet theories:
- It’s a misunderstanding/typo in the law
- Protectionism - the need for professionals is not as great in this field
- Licensing - some professions require you to be separately licensed in order to work, with significant penalties if you’re not
I just got some key information from the authorities of the Gold Card program today that I wanted to pass on to everyone via this thread, regarding NHI helath eligibility under the Gold Card program. This has been discussed in this thread earlier on and not answered fully.
- If you come with your family on a Gold Card, you will only get NHI coverage right away IF you have a Taiwanese employer. If you are employed, you and your family will all get NHI with no waiting period. NHI will start on your date of employment.
- If you are “Unemployed”, you and your family must reside in Taiwan for 6 full months (not including trips abroad) before any of you can apply for NHI. All of your family can be covered, but after the 6 month waiting period. You can then apply for NHI through the local county offices where you live, and they will determine a cost if you are unemployed (no salary to base the cost on).
So, those who don’t come over with employment lined up will need to have private health insurance from their home country in place, or go uninsured.
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Hi, can anyone explain “household registration?” Is it not the case that anyone with an ARC that has a certain address indicated has completed the household registration? Or is this something else?
it is only applicable to ROC nationals. If you are a foreigner, you don’t need to care about.
If you are a national of ROC, you can check here. It is a registration system of nationals with citizenship. Nationals of ROC without household registration do not have citizenship.
Indeed. On this, there’s a new law close to passing that removes the 6 month waiting period for gold card holders.
You can find an overview of the new law and a link to the one signed off by the executive yuan here: https://www.ndc.gov.tw/en/Content_List.aspx?n=999F9864EFDB5F6F&upn=6CE244D6E7DAF831
I just got rejected under the salary requirement, though I earn more than 160,000 NTD a month. I’m self-employed, and some of my income comes through as a freelancer while other comes in as wages paid through my company. I sent them my tax return and they said they would only count the line saying “wages, salaries, tips, etc.” (company income that I pay to myself as a salary) and not the line saying “business income” (income paid to me as a freelancer), even though they are both income for exactly the same type of work. (I bill one way or the other only because some of my clients prefer dealing with a company, and some with an individual.)
I’m not terribly surprised by this outcome, but it wasn’t totally clear to me from the requirements that freelancer income doesn’t count. Sharing this in case anyone else is in the same boat. Also, I called the labor office to clarify, and they confirmed that they are only looking for people who earn a regular wage as a company employee.
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This is not entirely consistent with my case.
Whilst I presented salaried evidence from employers, I made it clear however that I was now self-employed (by my own limited company). I never used the word freelance but it was clear that I’m working for my own company.
Can you appeal?
Thanks for your comment. My issue was that, while I do have my own company, not all my income flows through it – some companies just pay me directly as a ‘sole proprietor’ (as an American it means they give me a 1099 instead of paying the company). On the phone, the guy at the labor office re-iterated that they will only count the “wages” line even though I explained that it’s all earned income and it just gets added together and taxed exactly the same by the US tax authorities.
That sounds annoying. May I ask which field?
Tech, basically front-end coding/analytics. He also asked if I had salaried income of more than 160K in the past, but then said that couldn’t count either because it was more than 3 years ago (I’ve been self-employed for 5 years).
OK. Did you include much information about your tech background in the documents you submitted? I heard MOST does a perfunctory rejection of salary category applicants who don’t provide enough information about their tech skills.
A friend just got a Gold Card and his salary isn’t even half of 160,000/month. Is this a requirement really?