Are you able to qualify for a Gold Card? That would be the easiest way.
The issue is that there is lots of ambiguity on whatever it is allowed or not. Many interpretations, but no clear law. Probably you might be fine - but there are also some cases of foreigners being deported for playing music publicly or even for volunteer work.
In the worst case, you somehow end up in a traffic accident or in a dispute with a neighbor and the other party finds out that you “work from home” and reports you for working illegaly. Suddenly you face an investigation and possible deportation because the officer handling the case doesn’t share the view that your work doesn’t require a work permit.
With an open work permit / registered company / … you can save yourself lots of potential issues in a situation like this.
The sticking point is performing the work from Taiwan. It doesn’t matter where you keep your account.
Thanks all. Unfortunately I am not eligible for the Gold Card. I will get some legal advice and report here if I find out something that could be useful for others.
I’m too stupid to understand why the rules are what they are but I didn’t think it would be this hard to get Taiwan to take my tax dollars.
According to tax code here, doest matter if your work is for a non tw entity and no tw clients, if you r physically present in the country and use the “resources” of the country (basically it is interpreted as breathing in here) then you r working in the country, to work in TW foreigners and some classes of nationals need a proper work permit, your visa does not grant work permit rights, hence you r working illegally.
Besides That, once you get ur work permit sorted, technically speaking you will need to pay taxes on that work done while physically present in the country and according to your tax residency status (non resident vs resident and if resident according to your tax bracket)
I always fully expected to pay taxes here if I had the right to work. I am not a resident in any other country and I wouldn’t know how to go about paying taxes in my country of citizenship when I’ve never lived there as an adult.
I don’t want to evade anything, I just want to continue my career and pay what I owe where it is owed, but evidently I was very naive…
Yes, but this is not about paying taxes, but about having a work permit.
When you move to another country, you need a visa to be allowed to stay there as a resident. Some visa types will allow you to work while others don’t. That is true for basically all countries in the world and independent from taxation. In Taiwan, a spousal / dependent visa (of an ARC holder) does not automatically grant you the right to work unfortunately.
So unfortunately, you probably won’t be able to legally continue your current career in Taiwan without securing an appropriate work permit first. Of course, you can try to get along without the necessary permit - many people seem to be working remotely just fine on tourist visas in Taiwan and elsewhere, but YMMV.
Starting a company - as Marco mentioned - is one way of getting an ARC which would allow you to legally work. It’s definitely more effort, but then everything would be perfectly legal.
In that case, can’t @Allie just go to the Ministry of Labor and get a dependent work permit? That would seem like the easiest route.
All the foreign spouses here on dependent visas at my workplace are able to work part-time jobs with no issue, so it shouldn’t be hard to get a dependent work permit. Are these open work permits or tied to a specific employer?
If it’s possible to get an dependent work permit when married to a foreigner on an ARC, then what I stated is wrong. And then this would indeed be the easiest route.
Ok, so I have got advice from two immigration lawyers so far, and they disagree
First one, a small firm based in Taiwan which does immigration and other things, says that I can and should apply for a work permit from the Ministry of Labor. I can do this even if my employer is based outside of Taiwan.
Second one, immigration specialists based in Hong Kong with a team that deals with Taiwan specifically, told me that I do not need a work permit as long as I conduct remote work for a company outside Taiwan.
It seems that the rules are so unclear that even people in the know can’t parse them. Still, it is very positive. It means that as a dependent of another foreigner, I am allowed to work. I will try to apply for the work permit to be safe.
