What qualifies as "working" in a country

Work Working in Taiwan
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I started writing this in the Hailey Youtuber thread, and decided to start a separate one - I think that this topic deserves some discussion on its own. My comments were in response to Hailey being attacked by someone online for ‘working’ in Taiwan (filming videos for her channel) while being on a Tourist visa.

I think the problem lies in many people’s concept of what ‘working’ in a country entails in this day and age. What role does residency play in this? The rules need to be updated (in almost all countries), or ultimately, they will just miss out on tax monies that they could have otherwise collected. Otherwise, keep it as residence based, and only collect taxes if you have residency (regardless of why/how) in a country (however they choose to determine that).

The biggest issue I see is the outdated reliance on ‘country of residence’ in relation to work. Below, I will give several examples to discuss, and in each case we can consider what the situation is, and how the concept of work and residence fits or does not:

  1. A business person who lives in Singapore, and works for a Singapore based company (paid to a Singapore bank account) flies to Taiwan for a several week long business trip. He is on a Tourist (landing) Visa while he is in Taiwan. He returns to Singapore after his trip, and was paid for his time in Taiwan in his bank account in Singapore. Are there any issues with this?

  2. Similar to above, but the business person stays in Taiwan below the 183 day cut off, this time on a Visitor Visa - remember he is in Taiwan doing work related things, but paid in Singapore from his Singapore company.

  3. Again similar, but now above the 183 day cutoff.

The three above are with more traditional jobs, so it can be more easily understood, I think. Now let’s move into slightly different territory.

  1. Akira, from Japan, has a business that is completely self-running; he lives off of the dividends alone. However, he pays all of his taxes to Japan. He also comes to Taiwan to travel; any issues (What if the above were stocks?) Once again, consider the below 183 days, and after.

  2. John, from Canada, own a company that is relatively self running. John is on a Tourist Visa visiting Taiwan as a tourist for a month - he heard Taiwan is a great place and wants to visit. Let’s say John’s company is an Amazon FBA type company (it is a Canadian based company and he pays taxes in Canada on it) where John just checks on inventory, and makes sure there are no major issues in relation to his company when he is in Taiwan. Is John working in Taiwan? What if John extends his visitor visa up to six months? What about beyond that? Remember that his company is registered and pays taxes in Canada.
    Any issues?

  3. Janice is a YouTuber from Ireland. She is a resident of Ireland. She pays taxes on all of her earnings from her channel in Ireland. Ireland considers her a tax “resident” because she continues to pay taxes on her income to Ireland, even though she hasn’t been back to Ireland for three years, but she also hasn’t spent longer than 6 months in any country during that time. However, her passport is from Ireland, her bank accounts are in Ireland, and her Youtube channel functions ‘based’ in Ireland. Janice comes to Taiwan for 5 months and makes videos of her time in Taiwan, all while paying taxes etc., on her income to Ireland. What if she goes beyond the 6 months? Any issues?

What if any of the above people decide to stay in Taiwan? Does it differ? How? Should it be considered foreign company based income?

And … On a side (but related) note … Where exactly (location) is income earned from YouTube? It is not the filming of the videos that earn money, it is the viewing … Is it based on the country that it was released from? Where the server is? Remember that the money comes from royalties from views and ads … It is somewhat similar to a musician or actor who continues to earn money after the book is published … So if an actor or author moves to Taiwan, how does that work ???

Ultimately, I do not have any answers, and I am curious as to people’s thoughts on the matter.

1 Like
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in my opinion, taxes are meant to support the public infrastructure you use. no body likes them, and some people might think they can do better for themselves if they do things alone, but it’s still the best way to provide security, transportation, sanitation etc.
hence, if you live in country X long enough, you use its roads, rely on its hospitals, fire fighters, teachers, librarians etc. enjoy its nature and parks, airports, trains… you should pay taxes to that country.
how long is long enough ? many governments say its 183 days a year, which is a reasonable amount of time.

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Great post .
In general I think the 183 day residency rule and tax being associated with residency is fairly straightforward to manage and logical. But online services need a new definition or addition in tax codes and also working rights .

I certainly would hate if my country of citizenship over reached and tried to grab part of my income when I reside overseas long-term (hello USA).

In the EU there is a lot of debate about where income from internet services is taxable. I believe governments are trying to apply more from where the payments have been made now instead of where a multinational is trying to route it.

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Interesting. I don’t totally disagree with the 183 day rule, but in many cases it doesn’t really work (especially with international type companies; where the company resides in one place, and the owner /primary shareholder elsewhere).

Even with myself, when I retire from my government job in a few years, taxes are taken off at source that are paid to the Canadian government - where I live will not change that in any way.

Luckily, Taiwan and Canada have a tax agreement of a sorts, and I won’t be subject to double taxation as a resident of Taiwan. If I lived somewhere else, I could be subject to that country’s taxes, but the countries we are considering (with Taiwan as #1) all have agreements with Canada, so I won’t be worrying about that too much.

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Generally, isnt payment for goods and/or services considered income? In that sense some countries might even tax a trade based on estimated value of said items.

Property taxes and inheritance related taxes seem to be what piss many off, and i can kind of see their point.