No, you can buy one-way tickets to Hong Kong if you are from a visa-exempt country.
There should be staircases that takes you to the arrival level. If you canât access them, then just speak to the airline staff and let them know youâve missed your flight and no longer have any reason to fly, and that you need to leave the airport. They canât keep you there.
No, I donât even know anyone here who needs to do visa runs.
The only possibility I see where this may not work is if you tell the staff you never left, they might escort you to the immigration supervisorâs office where they just cancel your exit stamp instead of issuing you an entry stamp.
1 Like
nope, if u stay more than 90 days u will be subject to 18% non-resident tax rate for globally source income. Eventually they will catch u somehow, they always do.
2 Likes
It doesnât. Thereâs no connection between visas and taxes anymore.
So whatâs the 183-day tax rule?
I mean it keeps people who do visa runs from avoiding taxes. If a tourist does visa runs every few months but actually lives in Taiwan, they should be treated as residents and be paying taxes instead of being treated as tourists.
thatâs to be considered tax resident and hence access the resident tax rates, which are cheaper, 18% is flat rate regardless of your income.
2 Likes
Not really. I know someone whoâs been here like 17 years or something, most of which was on visa exemptions. If the tax office is going to start chasing him up at some point, they havenât done it yet.
It seems like the issues only potentially start to happen when applying for an ARC or filing taxes for the first time. I had a couple of years of being here >183 days on visa exemptions before getting the gold card (should have done that sooner tbh - I hadnât realized how easy it was until I met a random guy in a bar).
I must have forgotten to file taxes during that time - silly me, what a stupid foreigner I am! - but the tax office kindly reminded me about the previous years when I filed for the first time for 2020 after Iâd gotten the gold card.
Iâve read - probably on here - of this causing problems when attempting to switch from repeated visa exemptions to a regular work-based ARC, but the gold card seems to avoid it being a problem at this stage for some reason.
That was always my logic - if Iâm paying for a return flight, I may as well make a short holiday out of it. Never went to HK at that time, but would usually go to somewhere in SEA for a week or so.
Iâd be really cautious with this. I mean, sure, theyâre probably not gonna leave you stuck in the departure area forever, but I suspect that leaving and immediately reentering like this is going to raise some immigration officer eyebrows and attract some questions you donât want. I wouldnât be surprised if it ultimately made entering on visa exemptions more problematic for the person in the future.
And all for the sake of avoiding a short trip to HK or wherever after youâve already bought the ticket - not worth it.
Of course anyone can be dishonest and avoid paying taxes, but if this person you know has been living here for 17 years doing visa runs, then they are liable to Taiwan taxes.
Yeah, on second thought itâs entirely possible that they escort you to the immigration supervisor on duty who will just void your exit stamp instead of issuing you an entry stamp.
I believe they might know that, and I do too. 
Itâs an extreme example, but the point is the tax office so far hasnât made a habit of chasing people down for years they became tax-resident under the Income Tax Act.
This might be more plausible, yeah, or perhaps some kind of temporary compassionate you-have-seven-days-to-leave-the-country-type extension.
Thai immigration has been wise to this possibility for years - leaving Thailand via a land border with Laos/Cambodia/Myanmar and trying to coming back without entering the other country and paying for the visa. They donât like it, and I wouldnât expect Taiwanese immigration to either (obviously slightly different because weâre on an island).
1 Like
Unless you are SEAsian. Then the entire enforcement weight of NIA is directed at you, and they start to behave like CBP
3 Likes
You absolutely canât deliberately miss your flight. They will force you to take the next one.
1 Like
If you have to go through HK immigration, at least you will not get a stamp in your passport. They provide a slip of paper instead. The only hiccup is the usual long lines (talking pre 2020) to get through.
When you check in again, they will want to see your flight out ticket from Taiwan.
Going through immigration and deliberately missing a flight could cause a major headache. There would be no chance in hell you would be allowed to âre-enterâ Taiwan.
You may be charged a load more money, on another flight. If one is not available, you could have a long wait - even the following day. You could miss your return flight. If you caused a stink, be asked questions about your status, and so on.
2 Likes
Great info. Thanks.
Is that a Taiwan-specific rule? When I was living in other countries Iâve missed plenty of flights before, and I just went home and flew another day.
I have an ideaâŚ
Just call it trying to fuck the system.
And stupid fucks trying that donât realize that everything is in place to prevent that happening.
Hey wow, we never thought about that, wow we are dumb fucking Taiwanese immigration organization.
Ok dumb fuckers, donât think others are as dumb fuck as you.
The point is if one deliberately fails to board a flight after checking in, and after exiting immigration from Taiwan.
If you have âplentyâ of no-shows, well the penalties must have cost you dearlyâand I suspect you did your no-show without checking in at the airport and without exiting immigration (perhaps in the US where they do not have this step for departing passengers).
Guy
Thatâs not what I meant.
This is what I meant. Except replace the word âdeliberatelyâ with âaccidentallyâ, and replace âTaiwanâ with âUAEâ.
I mean as a foreigner having already exited immigration. Although come to think of it if you have an ARC then you have an open reentry permit so maybe youâd be ok.
Yes, thatâs what I mean too. Never had any issues in other countries. (Although I never missed my flights on purpose. All accidental.)
It shouldnât be an issue for visa-free tourists either, as long as it doesnât happen on their 90th day.