What are the downsides of pursuing US-Taiwan dual citizenship?

As @qwert_zuiop mentioned…

Even if you lived in Taiwan using your US citizenship and used visa exempt entry on visa runs once you live here for more than 6 months a year you have become a tax resident. So it matters not what nationality passport you use to stay in Taiwan or whether or not you have a Taiwan Tarc or ID, an ARC or tourist visa or visa free entry.

TAX RESIDENT

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What do you mean by US income?

Any income you make from your blood and sweat and labors while living in Taiwan as a tax resident is taxable to the Taiwan government, even if you are working remotely for a company in the US. This applies to everyone living and working in Taiwan, citizen or otherwise. For US citizens, any amount you make over $120k USD is further taxable to the US government.

:point_up_2:This is called “Taiwan sourced income”. It is not US income or overseas income.

Income that is NOT made from your blood and sweat and labors while in Taiwan (passive income received from your previous labors in the US, such as rental income, dividends, etc.) is payable to the Taiwan government only after the first $6.7m in the form of AMT, if you live in Taiwan.

:point_up_2: This is US income (or overseas income).

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Yes.

I think you’re just further confusing him here.

His Taiwan-sourced income would be taxed at the first dollar (his salary while working in Taiwan, even if his paycheck comes from the US).

His overseas income (which is passive because he wouldn’t be in the US) would be taxed after the first $6.7m.

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He means the usual exemptions that anyone gets for marriage, dependents, etc.

That’s also a bit confusing though because many people assume “paid from the US” does mean it’s not “Taiwan-sourced” although it would be in that case.

The example is basically, if I reside in Taiwan as a Tax resident (while being in a dual citizen), and have a business in the US that provides me, for example, 5M NTD would i be taxed? Or is that threshold at the $6.7M NTD ? Or first dollar?

Will this be a business that someone is running for you in the US that is generating passing income for you? Or will you be working for your business while living in Taiwan and getting paid a salary?

I mean, it would just be me basically receiving money to my US bank account for customers buying my products, and me having to answer customer questions once every few weeks.

I think you are technically supposed to be paying taxes since you’ll actually be working, but there’s no way the government would know that.

I believe you don’t have to pay business tax since it’s not a business registered in Taiwan, but still need to pay personal income tax.

If you want to be 100% honest then you can get advice from a CPA here. Your work is minimal enough that I’m sure they can advise you on how to structure your business to legally avoid or minimize taxes.

yes, this is taxable income from the first dollar. there are work arounds like paying yourself dividend and not salary, but there will be tax implications in the US side on this too.
seek professional advice on whats the best way to structure your business and minimize tax liability.

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Nonsensical requirements and moving the goalpost when it comes to trying to get my ARC… I even just got finished writing complaints to the relevant arms of government (TECO, NIA, BOCA, HHR).

They want either my dad’s death certificate or marriage license to authenticate the fact that my parents separated, but the death cert needs his photo ID (which I never found when he died and neither the DMV nor Secretary of State/passport would reissue it for reasons that should be glaringly obvious), or the marriage license from one of 3 possible counties since my dad moved around a bit, and NOBODY told me that the NIA/HHR would still need it once I got to Taiwan; sending a sworn and notarized statement from both me and my mom was enough for TECO to waive it for my passport, but not this time. I don’t know what the hell I should do.

Is this not in the public record? :thinking:

I have his death cert and have mailed it in before, but it’s TECO Seattle (jurisdiction for Oregon) that refuses to authenticate it because I don’t have his photo ID.

Aha, so it’s petty bureaucrat syndrome! There should be some way to file a formal complaint about that then.

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I’m also curious and would like to pose some questions about tax “residency” and tax obligations to Taiwan.

First:
Q1. If you obtain only an NWOHR passport (without HHR), then is it correct that there are no tax obligations or reporting obligations to Taiwan whatsoever?

Continuing on: Under the new proposed law, NWOHRs with Taiwanese parents will be able to get HHR more-or-less immediately without needing to live in Taiwan for 1 year on a TARC.

Let’s say you successfully obtain HHR in Taiwan, obtained as described above, but you stay in Taiwan only a few days during the year (to take care of paperwork, etc.), because you live for the majority of the year in a different country. Then:

Q2. In general, as a non-tax-resident of Taiwan, and with no Taiwan-sourced income, do you have any tax obligations to Taiwan at all? Assume non-Taiwan-sourced earned income (salary) and passive income (investments, interest, pension, etc.) are received from a non-Taiwanese country. As long as you are a non-tax-resident of Taiwan, is it correct that this non-Taiwan-sourced income does not trigger any tax obligation or reporting obligation to Taiwan?

Q3. Definition of tax-resident. After obtaining HHR as described above (a few days in Taiwan for paperwork, but most of the year living elsewhere), will you be classified as a non-tax-resident? Common-sense would say yes, but another thread indicated that in some cases authorities lazily equated domicile with HHR, which might imply that merely having HHR (even if you don’t live in Taiwan for most of the year) might be equated with being a tax resident. Any ideas?

Thanks for any comments!

Wow that would be nice! No taxes for foreigners living in Taiwan since they don’t have HHR!

In simple terms, as long as you are living in Taiwan, then you are liable for taxes to the Taiwan government.

No. This isn’t the USA. You must live in Taiwan to be liable for Taiwan taxes.

If you are living in Taiwan (after a certain number of days after moving to Taiwan), then you are a tax resident of Taiwan. Doesn’t matter if you are Taiwanese or Thai.

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you read chinese, right?

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Whoops, right. I intended to ask about NWOHRs not resident in Taiwan. I understood from your answer that Taiwan taxation (of worldwide/non-Taiwan-sourced income) is based on residency, so if no residency, then no taxation (on worldwide/non-Taiwan-sourced-income).

Conversely (though this is a different case), I also understood from reading somewhere else that even as a non-resident, if there is Taiwan-sourced income, that still could be taxable in Taiwan. I guess this could happen if you are not a Taiwan resident but still had some kind of short-term Taiwan-sourced earnings from a business trip to Taiwan on an appropriate visa.