Thanks for the link. The Google-translated version is very understandable. As I understood it:
If you have HHR, and “reside” in Taiwan for 31 days or more per year, than you are a tax resident.
If you have HHR, and if your center of life (“domicile” in English) is in Taiwan, then even a 1-day visit can count you as a tax resident. By implication, this means that anyone who visits for even 1 day might be classified as a tax resident. This would seem to be a grey area for those people who visit for a few days per year for the purpose of keeping their HHR “active” – are they tax residents, or not? @Taiwan_Luthiers, I believe that you previously said that one of your relatives may fall into this category – do you know if he’s a tax resident, or not?
If you have no HHR, but stay in Taiwan for total of more than 183 days in a tax year, then you are a tax resident.
Otherwise, if none of the above apply, you are not a tax resident for that year.
Yes, in rare cases if a non-resident comes to Taiwan on a very long business trip over a certain number of days in a fiscal year, they could be liable to pay personal income tax to Taiwan (at least for the portion of income earned while physically conducting business in Taiwan).
Most companies won’t let this happen to their employee, so it’s not an issue for most people. If you are self-employed, and frequently travel to Taiwan on business trips, then you should be aware of the tax implications. (Although realistically nobody would know that you performed any work while you were here.)
But since he is a retired military officer, he does not pay tax. Government workers do not pay tax, at least for a long time that is how it was. I do not know if the Tsai administration changed that.
Not sure where to put this, but it seems related, so I’ll put it here.
If you have a Taiwan passport (either NWOHR or with HHR), and another non-Taiwan passport, is it mandatory for you always to enter Taiwan with your Taiwan passport?
I suppose that once you have HHR and full citizen rights/responsibilities, you are supposed to always enter on your Taiwan passport.
But how about if you only have a NWOHR passport, plus another passport? Are you still required always to use your NWOHR passport when you enter Taiwan? Or can you use another passport? Not that there would be any benefits to doing it either way, but I just wanted to understand the law.
Not so and this topic has been covered on the forums here before. Taiwan nationals with or without HHR can enter Taiwan on a foreign passport. However they are then subject to the laws as temporary non residents unless that get an ARC. Steve Chen, a Taiwan citizen was the first person to be issued a Gold Card ARC. he lives in Taiwan on his US passport.
My son has used both his Taiwan NWOHR ( with a special entry visa ) and his Australian passport. He does not have a TARC.
Just curious to anybody in here: Does Taiwan actually track if you leave the country and come back on your US passport? I’m losing money living off my savings since my NIA has been finding every excuse in the book to delay my ARC, and I might as well just go back to the US and take another 1-2 months off once the residency time is up.
Also, obligatory update since my last post: Although my mom swore up and down she signed the divorce in LA when my dad moved back down from Northern California in '94 and I’ve moved back to the US in '97, I FINALLY found the court where their divorce records are kept… In Sonoma County (where I left from to Taiwan), so I hope that the decree can FINALLY be authenticated and accepted!
Is there a need to back-pay for previous years of NHI for NWOHRs who newly establish HHR for the first time? I saw this claim on reddit, where one person says that they were told (by who?) that they had to pay back 20K (USD) to cover Taiwan’s “social security tax” (presumably they mean NHI) if they established HHR.
The poster is referring to what happens when you establish HHR for the first time as an NWOHR.
I don’t know what the poster means when they say “pay back”, but it sounds like they are talking about back-pay for previous years of NHI. I also don’t know how they got the 20K USD figure. If this is true, then how many previous-years’ worth of NHI do you have to pay when joining for the first time?
No, because NHI enrollment doesn’t happen until 6 months after you initially get your TARC. You can’t owe money for any period of time prior to your initial enrollment.
And there is no mandatory social security tax in Taiwan (or anything similar).
nhi doesn’t care what kind of residency you have. once you become eligible to join on some residency, your obligation to pay begins regrdless of whether you apply for your nhi card or not. if you don’t apply, they don’t send you a bill, but your payment is just accumulated, and at some point, you have to pay all.
if you are not eligible to join nhi, you don’t need to pay anything. when you don’t have any kind of residency, you are not eligible.
Very good to know. In my case, as a NWOHR applying for HHR for the first time (under the new proposed law which eliminates the 1-year required stay on the TARC), then I understand that I will become eligible after 6 months of continuous residency.
If you have an obligation to pay, but then move overseas for several years, you can simply apply to suspend NHI coverage, and suspend your obligation to pay, right? Then later, when you resume, you don’t have to pay for the several-years period you missed, but you then have to wait for 6 months (without NHI payments and without NHI coverage), then after 6 months you can and must pay into NHI again, right?
OK, so let’s consider this example case (maybe similar to my case in the future):
Enter Taiwan on NWOHR passport for a short-term stay.
Rent apartment for 3 months and get rental contract.
Use rental contract to establish HHR at rental apartment address.
Live for 3 months at apartment address. Because this is less than 6 months, no obligation to pay NHI is incurred yet.
After 3 months, apply for moving-out procedure at HHR office. (Not sure about this)
No need to apply to suspend NHI payments, because I didn’t yet qualify. No payment obligation to NHI.
Leave Taiwan.
Repeat steps 1-7 as many times as desired for multiple short-term stays (with HHR registration), each stay less than 6 months. In this case, is it correct that no obligation to pay NHI is incurred because every short-term stay (with HHR registration) is less than 6 months, therefore not qualifying for NHI?
(In practice I would probably only register HHR during the first 3-month residency, in order to establish my first 戶籍 and to permanently change my status from 無戶籍國民 to 有戶籍國民, and for later short-term stays I wouldn’t need to register HHR again.)
When ready to live long-term in Taiwan, then I would:
Enter Taiwan on Taiwan passport.
Rent apartment.
Register HHR there.
Live for more than 6 months (not paying NHI during these 6 months because I am not yet qualified for NHI).
Qualify for NHI after 6 months pass, starting with the 7th month.
Start paying NHI from 7th month.
Able to use NHI from 7th month.
If leaving Taiwan for a long time, then apply to suspend NHI coverage and payments.
Upon return to Taiwan (after a long overseas stay of more than 2 years), must again wait 6 months without NHI, then again start paying NHI from 7th month. No back-payment of NHI (for the period of time not in Taiwan) is needed because I applied to suspend NHI coverage and payments during that time.
Upon return to Taiwan (after a short overseas stay of less than 2 years), you can enroll again immediately in NHI. In this case, do you need to pay NHI for the time when you were not in Taiwan during the short overseas stay? (I think you have to back-pay if your overseas stay was less than 6 months and you want to resume immediately.)
Yes when this is law my son will apply for HHR and ID. He has NWOHR Passport but no TARC. He lives and works in Australia. So even getting HHR and ID will not mean he has to pay for NHI. If you are working in Taiwan then NHI starts immediately.
When he lived in Taiwan on an ARC his NHI contributions continued for 2 years after he left. The NHI wrote to me to say he was no longer eligible and no further payments required.
Not true. US is still a great place to live and work. More opportunities, more money, more relaxed lifestyle with a focus on work-life balance. US is huge, if you don’t like one place just move to another state.
To avoid confusion and misunderstandings about NHI payment, is it easy to check if you have an obligation to pay, or not? Where do you ask? I assume there is some city hall office that takes care of NHI related inquiries?
This becomes particularly important for the case where you have HHR and qualify for NHI, then leave for a long time and suspend NHI, but then return back to Taiwan for just one day or one week. In that case, you are apparently automatically billed for at least 3 months of NHI coverage, as discussed here: Well, that's a stupid rule--Taiwan's health insurance
What if you move out of Taiwan for a while and no longer live at your previous HHR address, and have no other address in Taiwan? How can the NHI (and other government agencies) contact you? Can you register your foreign address at the HHR office so that government offices will contact you at your foreign address?