1. The individuals who have the obligation of filing an individual income basic tax return
(1) An individual shall file an individual income basic tax return in accordance with the Income Basic Tax Act unless his/her circumstances apply to any one or more of the conditions listed below:
Non-resident of the R.O.C. (staying less than 183 days within a taxable year in the R.O.C.).
An individual who does not apply for any investment tax credits in accordance with the laws and does not have any amount within the scope of the provisions of any of the subparagraphs of Paragraph 1 of Article 12 of the Income Basic Tax Act in his/her annual income tax return or current income tax return. 3. An individual whose basic income as calculated in accordance with Paragraph 1 of Article 12 of the Income Basic Tax Act is less than NT$6,700,000.
My income is less than NT$6,700,000. Does this mean I donāt need to file?
Ok assuming you have already been outside of the US for 330 days in a year prior to this one, then you have already filed using FEIE, right? So you can continue to use that for your time in Taiwan.
And yes, you will have to file in Taiwan. Not sure why the wording you quoted seems to suggest otherwise. But you should not be taxed twice despite their not being an official tax treaty. In most cases you can obtain Foreign Tax Credits to offset whatever tax youāve paid in your primary country, and these can actually accrue into future years as well.
So while technically not being taxed twice, could your taxes go up from what you are currently paying? Quite possibly. Right now you may be avoiding tax by either not having a tax home or by living in a lower or no tax jurisdiction. So yeah, when you start paying tax to Taiwan you may end up paying more than you currently are.
Iāll check on that. My company sends me a 1099-MISC every year and I file through turbotax. Iāve called the IRS several times through the years, and theyāve confirmed Iāve been doing everything correctly.
Iām pretty certain that you are eligible for FEIE. The IRS page does not mention any differentiation with 1099s** and a brief perusal of other resources on the web clearly indicates that self-employed individuals can use FEIE, but must still pay self-employment taxes on the FEIE-portion income. (there are ways to reduce or even eliminate this, but for your circumstances I think you should just pay it)
I know lots of people who do this, although I donāt have personal experience. Everything Iāve written is from my own brief discussions with our CPA in preparation for my own move to Taiwan.
Bottom line: You will not be double taxed. Youāre gonna pay your income tax to Taiwan. Then use the FEIE. Anything you make over the FEIE you can apply to FTC. (Not to get into the weeds too much but you can even apply the housing exclusion as well).
Edit: Oh yeah and I would definitely advise working with a professional. At the very least hire someone to briefly go over and answer all your questions even if you choose to file on your own.
Thatās my understanding. Once you spend more than half the year in Taiwan, you become a tax resident of Taiwan, and that is more or less the barometer for bona fide residence to apply FEIE. Itās a gray area because the IRS does not say EXACTLY what is necessary for bona fide residence, but it seems anecdotally that if you do that itās enough. If you want to be 100% safe, then you need to meet the physical presence test which pretty much means being outside the US for 330 days in the calendar year. (Thereās a few small exceptions you must be aware of if youāre cutting it close)
I definitely need to talk to an accountant before deciding to move to Taiwan while working for my current company, which does not have a Taiwan presence. In addition to the above discussion, I just learned about something called permanent establishment:
If I am reading it right, seems like working from Taiwan could expose my company to tax liability. Hopefully, I am reading it wrong.
Yep well yours is a special circumstance and I never wanted to touch your question with a ten foot pole haha.
My responses to others are entirely in regards to their own personal income tax situation and not factoring their employersā tax obligations. I would assume that the people in question are not lying to their own employers about their whereabouts.
With the 1099 poster, I donāt know for sure but my guess is that his employer has no extra obligation, and that the self-employment tax is what essentially covers for that. But yeah I donāt know and I wouldnāt suggest that you can definitely go that routeā¦but you should explore it.
Right, I would not think 1099 filers would cause any problems for their client companies. But I am not an accountant, which should be obvious from my posts I also donāt think anyone, including myself, would want to conceal their whereabouts from their employer. But other people who work remotely have mentioned the possibility of keeping their current overseas employment but working from Taiwan. I think it will be too complicated for me from a tax perspective, so I will probably look to set up a company in Taiwan instead. But I do have a great job so will talk to a CPA and our HR team before giving up on the idea altogether.
Unless you need a visa, you donāt really need a company in Taiwan, you should be able to change your contract to contractor with your company, and fill your tax as freelance in Taiwan.
In case someone is interested: Drove to Frankfurt (Germany) today to get my passport verified.
When I called them yesterday, it seemed like they (or at least the employee I was talking to) hadnāt heard about the concept of a āGold Cardā yet. When I told them I wanted to verify my passport, they just asked me what kind of visa I was applying for. Additionally, they told me I might need to go to Munich rather than Frankfurt because of the city I am living in.
After she clarified with her supervisor, she told me that, yes, I can come to Frankfurt (but with an appointment only), but the necessary information hadnāt arrived in the consulate email yet and asked me to call back in the afternoon.
When I called back, the information had arrived and I made an appointment for the following day.
Arrived about half an hour early and handed over my documents (brought my passport, the verification sheet, a copy of my passport and the payment recipe). It took about 30 min to process, I was handed back my documents and then was good to go. No other visitors during the time I was there - just someone delivering some boxes apparently containing desk fans.
They told me I should call them in two weeks to ask if the card had arrived yet because they werenāt sure if I would receive an email or not once this happens.
After driving back home, the status website now says āIC Card in Progressā and I received another email telling me that the card needs at least 21 business days to arrive at the āmissionā.
Letās see - Iāll update again once I have the card.
So glad I found this forum and the taiwangoldcard website. Submitted my Gold Card Application today under Technology. Uploaded my Google Scholar page of publications, a recent patent, Springer book link, PhD diploma, and an old W2. Left off my list of awards - hopefully unnecessary? Had I known about the Gold card, it wouldnāt have been such a struggle getting to Taiwan earlier this year. Letās see if I get approved and how long it takesā¦
Wonder if incentives exist for Gold Card holders to set up technology companies in Taiwan?
Good luck! Depending on which school you graduated from, you can just apply under the Education category, as the only requirement is a PhD from a top-200 university.
Also, hello, fellow Tennessean! (at least Iām assuming so from your screen name)
Hopefully you get the approval faster than me! I applied under science & tech in early June, got an update in early July to upload more docs (because I only uploaded 1099 MISC). Last I heard, my app got approved by ministry of science & tech and itās back at the labor department waiting for next steps. It seems the back and forth with ministry of science & tech will add a few extra weeks. Also uploading additional docs at the labor department review stage will probably send you to the back of the queue again.
I also donāt think anyone, including myself, would want to conceal their whereabouts from their employer. But other people who work remotely have mentioned the possibility of keeping their current overseas employment but working from Taiwan. I think it will be too complicated for me from a tax perspective, so I will probably look to set up a company in Taiwan instead. But I do have a great job so will talk to a CPA and our HR team before giving up on the idea altogether.