Thanks! By copy you mean a photograph/scan uploaded to the portal?
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On the topic of gold card renewals when one is expiring, does anyone know whether theyâre strict on the requirement that the photo be taken within the last 6 months?
The last time I got passport photos taken for my first gold card three years ago, I had that 1 in 100 event where I was actually happy with the result and donât look like an escaped convict, so Iâm wondering if I can just reuse the same photo for the renewal.
Iâm at the age where oneâs appearance doesnât change much over the course of 3 years (it still looks like me), and I canât really be bothered trimming my beard and spending the time and effort going to the photo place. Itâll be obvious from the application portal that the photo wonât have been taken in the last 6 months though, because I wonât have uploaded a new one.
Any experiences with this?
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If your uploaded photo is the same as the one in your prior gold card, or your passport and your passport was issued more than 6 months ago, it will be rejected. Itâs relatively obvious to reviewers on the back-end, since both photos can be displayed next to each other in many cases.
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Thanks for the clarification. Guess I need to go get new photos taken then. Escaped convict look, here we come.
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So guys, Iâm planning to permanently (or at least for a few years) move to Taiwan some time this year and have a few questions about working as a freelancer, taxes and the NHI.
The plan is to work as a freelance software developer for customers in Germany. Some facts:
- I wonât be registered in Germany anymore and wonât be taxable there
- I have a Gold Card until 2025
- My customers will only be from the EU
- They will pay the invoices by transferring the money to my bank account in Germany
- I will not wire the money to any Taiwan bank account, instead just regularly withdraw at the ATM
- In general, as far as Iâve heard âfreelancingâ is not a thing in Taiwan. I donât want to complexify the situation, so I want to find the easiest, legal way to work as a freelancer
- Yearly income will only be around 800.000 TWD
- I have only been in Taiwan less than 90 days since I got the gold card, so I havenât been taxed there yet
Questions:
- Invoices will be written in german with the total amount in EUR. My plan was to additionally write the total amount in TWD with the current exchange rate. Anything else important? Or better write the invoices in english?
- Do I need to open a company in Taiwan or can I just start working and write invoices? My plan would be to collect all invoices and at the end of the tax year I would (not sure how it exactly works) send them to the tax office with an additional paper calculating the total earnings for which I have to pay taxes for. Will that be possible without a company in Taiwan? As I said, I want to keep it as lean and easy as possible
- Invoices will not have any taxes on it, since all customers are outside of TaiwanâŚor does Taiwan have any strict regulations about how invoices have to look like? In Germany for example we have very strict rules (unique invoice number, date, addresses etc.)
- For the first few months I will only have 1 customer Iâm working for. Is this a problem according to taiwanese law? In Germany this could cause some problems, since you basically skip to pay social taxes while only working for one customer.
- The gold card comes with some tax benefits⌠are those also applicable for freelancing? If I am not applicable, around how much tax do I have to pay for a yearly income of around 800.000 TWD? Is there any tax calculator for Taiwan?
- According to the gold card FAQ after 6 months I am applicable for NHI if Iâm not working. Is that the same case when freelancing or can I apply for the NHI immediately after arriving in Taiwan and starting to work as a freelancer? How is the amount I have to pay for NHI calculated? It depends on my income, right? Since I wonât have a contract with an employee my monthly income varies. How would I know how much I have to pay?
- Can work related expenses (buy new laptop, monitor) be calculated against my earnings and reduce my net incoming so that I have to pay lower tax?
To anyone how can answer those questions and/or give me any additional advice: thank you in advance!!
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Your bank in Germany may cut you asking where the money comes from if you cannot show them a company registration, freelance registration. Also be very sure you are actually not due to pay VAT. Many rules that still make you eligible vartmoss or OSS. Depends what kind of services you provide
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Your situation is quite similar to mine and that of a few other people. There are previous threads discussing most of what youâre asking about, so you might want to check those out. A couple of examples (youâll probably find additional ones by searching for âfreelanceâ, âfreelancingâ, etc.):
Most of what you wrote sounded mostly fine to me. Some responses to some of your specific questions below.
I think youâd make things easier for yourself if you started sending bilingual invoices (German followed by English translations for each field) from this point on. I think I might have submitted one or two things to the tax office in German at some point and I suspect theyâd be able to figure out an invoice entirely written in German, but I donât think itâd hurt if you included English translations as well and you might save yourself some potential hassle later. And Iâm guessing you need to keep the first language as German for your German clients.
You donât need to write the amount in TWD or the exchange rate. It doesnât matter. When the time comes to file taxes, youâll enter your total annual income for each client in EUR and the tax software will convert it into TWD using the exchange rate for December from the National Taxation Bureau.
Nope, you donât need to, AFAIK (also discussed previously), and you donât need to register as a freelancer as in Germany. I think youâre fine to just start working and writing invoices. Thatâs what Iâve done the last few years anyway.
Yes, thatâs fine. The tax year is the same as the calendar year, and taxes need to be filed in May (or June for the last couple of years, because of COVID). From what youâve written, it doesnât seem like youâll need to worry about this until May 2024 (for your 2023 income).
There are no strict requirements for invoices in Taiwan as far as Iâm aware - I think that anything youâve already been sending to Germany will also be fine here. Since youâre invoicing German clients though, theyâll probably still expect the invoices to be written with all the usual information required in Germany, and there would be little reason for you to start omitting unique invoice numbers, dates, addresses, and so on.
There might be additional bits you should still include to make things simpler on the German end, like ârecipient is not liable for VATâ/âSteuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängersâ and your ARC number in place of a Steuernummer. Iâm just going from my old invoices there - I donât know the current rules for invoicing Germany from outside Germany.
Nope, itâs fine AFAIK. Youâd presumably intend to have additional clients after the first few months anyway, but even if you didnât I think itâs fine.
Theyâre only applicable if you earn over NT$3 million in a year. Otherwise, youâre paying the same tax rate as everyone else. Assuming youâre single with no dependents, your income tax on an annual income of NT$800k in 2022 would be around NT$18,850 per year (itâs 5% of NT$800k minus NT$423k, which is the sum of all the basic exemptions and deductions). If you have dependents or additional deductions itâll be lower. I imagine thatâs quite a bit lower than in Germany, so welcome to a low-tax country.
Plus NT$826 per month for National Health Insurance, when you get it.
Yeah, there are, but Iâm getting bored of typing. The government one, findable via Google, doesnât seem to have been updated for the 2022 allowances yet. Tax in Taiwan is pretty simple though, especially compared to Germany.
Iâm not sure. I had to wait 6 months, but then there was some discussion that gold card holders may be eligible immediately, then I remember reading it hadnât really worked out like this and that only applied to those working for Taiwanese companies. There are probably threads about it though.
NT$826 if you donât have local income. This is one of the rare occasions that the Taiwanese government never thinking about foreigners when they do stuff has worked in our favor.
No, I donât think so. Not unless you start a company or something. For routine, relatively cheap stuff like computer equipment, I donât think this would work out in your favor. The standard deductions are already quite generous.
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There are specific banks which allow living abroad. Itâs just easier to keep those accounts and get the customers to transfer the money there.
But yeah, I definitely have to check in detail if there might be any problems occuring. Maybe I have to ask a german tax specialist about that.
Wow, thanks for the detailed answer! Helps a lot.
I might come back to you for more questions if that is ok. First beer in Taipei is on me, if you are still there 
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Banks have to ask where your money comes from. and they will ask. If you cannot provide papers they terminate you. But they so far donât care about VAT.
They may get very specific and ask to see PayPal, stripe and so on full Ballance sheets, proof of employment, whatever they fancyâŚ
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Have you experienced that with german banks? I mean there wonât be any illegal things Iâm doing. Since I wonât be residing in Germany (âgewĂśhnlicher Aufenthaltsort - more than 183 daysâ) I will not have any tax liability there.
But yes sure, banks could always freeze your account and ask for documents. Thanks for the heads up anyway!
Yes, you may better get 1-3 reserve accounts before leaving officially.
Based on this account, things do not seem to be going well. 
Guy
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I read that earlier. I didnât like the style of the piece (made me cringe a fair bit tbh), but he made some valid points too.
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The slagging new arrivals from SE Asia in that piece did not fill me with delight.
Guy
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Totally expected, when ARCers have been treated like 
for decades.
Taiwan government sux when it comes to be internationalized. All talk, no action.
To be fair, the piece does primarily go after the shortcomings of industry, banking, and other sectors of society here too.
Guy
which are directly regulated by the government
Not when the regulators say itâs a business decision and not their job to regulate lol. 
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they purposely are circle-jerking each other