Thanks once again for your help @tando. Could I please clarify something here? Does the 40k TWD/registration/receipt requirement you mention refer exclusively to sales within Taiwan or both inside and outside Taiwan? That is, do I really need to register and issue fapiao for clients outside Taiwan?
I’ve looked through the two acts you posted, and some of the language here seems to indicate (at least to me) that many of the articles specifically refer to goods/services sold inside Taiwan. In particular,
Value-added and Non-value-added Business Tax Act
Article 1: Value-added or non-value-added business tax shall be levied, in accordance with this Act, on the sale of goods or services within the territory of the Republic of China (R.O.C.) and on the import of goods.
Article 4: Any of the following circumstances is a sale of services within the territory of the R.O.C.:
- Where services sold are supplied or utilized within the territory of the R.O.C..
- Where passengers are boarded or goods loaded within the territory of the R.O.C by an international transportation enterprise.
- Where a foreign insurance enterprise accepts reinsurance policies from an insurance enterprise within the territory of the R.O.C…
Am I reading that wrong?
Also,
Article 7: The business tax rate is zero for sale of the following goods or services:
[…]
2. Services relating to export or services provided in the R.O.C. but used in a foreign country.
Would this not apply here?
Article 8: The following goods or services are exempted from the business tax:
6. Publication which are textbooks authorized by education authorities for use at various levels of schools and important specialized academic writings awarded by the government according to the law issued by the publishing industry.
Could this also not apply here for specialized academic publications (though I’m not exactly sure what the “awarded by…” part refers to)? Probably not, I guess?
Regarding the “Regulations Governing Taxation Registration” act, I’ve looked through that…and I get the impression that it would seem to mean that any individual doing work on a freelance/contract basis, whether for Taiwanese or overseas clients, would need to register as a business entity. Am I wrong, or is that really the correct interpretation?
Surely this type of situation, i.e., doing freelance/contract work for one or two clients outside Taiwan, is one that would apply to quite a number of other gold card holders here? I might not have explained myself clearly above - what I intend to do, initially, is essentially provide a regular service to two foreign companies, send each one an invoice every month, and get paid (can be either to a foreign account or Taiwanese one, whichever is easier).
Do I really need to register as a business entity, issue fapiao, and file taxes every two months for this? I know the concept of “freelance” isn’t so common in Taiwan, but I honestly thought I would just need to do something simple like file a personal tax return once a year and pay.
How have other gold card holders in this thread handled this? Surely I’m not the only one in this kind of situation…?
Ah okay, thanks. I thought I’d read somewhere that translation and similar services were included, but I must be wrong then.