Since I’m very certain I have to hire a tax consultant end of next year: What hourly fee can I 差不多 expect for a proper taiwanese tax consultant, which has good knowledge about taxes for local and foreign income and speaks english?
(+Bonus points if you guys have any recommendation)
Thanks!
I don’t know much about your situation. Do you have a business? Which country are you from?
In Taiwan for personal income the tax office is actually generally very friendly and will even help you lower your tax… Unlike in the west where you have to calculate yourself and then get thrown in jail for miscalculating…
I won’t have a registered business, it will just be my individual tax return (but probably still more complicated than others). I am from Germany and have a gold card.
I strongly advise you go to the local tax office and find someone who speaks good English who can look at your specific details and advise on your situation before searching for an accountant. It is very rare someone will use an accountant in Taiwan for an individual return.
It is not like my home country (Australia) where every man and his dog use a tax accountant… (I don’t know much about the situation in Germany but I guess it’s the same.)
Yeah, very common in Germany too, either via tax advisors or a Lohnsteuerhilfeverein (uh… something like “income tax assistance association”, I guess). German tax law is way more complicated than Taiwan’s though.
I’ve filed on my own before because I’m stingy and like to try and understand what I’m paying and the rules that affect me, but it was a bit of a pain to put it mildly, especially having to do it in German and for a mixture of employment and freelance income spread across multiple countries.
Totally agree they shouldn’t need a tax advisor or accountant here though, at least in the first instance. Would be wise when the time comes though for @Chris59 to read a few threads on here and try to understand at least the basics. While generally helpful, I wouldn’t always trust the staff at the tax office to have a good understanding of less common situations.
Generally… If it was earnt there during the time of being a tax resident in Germany you can pay that part at local rates.
As for Taiwan… the blanket 183 day rule applies. If he were here for over 183 days any income earnt while residing here (assuming it is considered sourced here -AKA freelance work while residing in Taiwan- is taxed at normal income tax rates.)
So there would likely be 2 returns in that case. But I am making a lot of assumptions and generalizing. Also I am no German or Taiwan tax expert.
Thanks for the replies guys!
It will probably be foreign freelancy income (regularly) from the same company, until it is sold and then there will be another, bigger one time payment for giving up my shares. Paying the normal tax (up to 40%) for the regular income and use the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) for the one time payment would be ideal, but yeah, not sure if this is possible.
Luckily I still have time and thanks for the information about the tax office. I will definitely go there once I collect all the information!
P.S. German individual tax returns can be a pain in the ass, yes (especially when u have a “Gewerbe” (privat business? not sure how to translate).
Doesn’t sound like a big deal. Also as far as I know Taiwan doesn’t tax capital gains on foreign shares… (Correct me if I’m wrong.)
Also from my understanding AMT only applies to passive/investment income… i.e rental, dividends etc and won’t cover your freelance income as that would be deemed as sourced in Taiwan.
Yeah, that part was fine. There was some additional weird stuff like being able to claim further deductions for moving countries for work and moving countries more than once for work within the last x years, and moving to or from a country that uses a different electricity voltage/frequency… but let’s not get into all that. 
(My additional tax for that year ended up being 57 EUR or something, which I was totally happy to pay when I received the letter, but it wasn’t the easiest thing to do.)
For that part… A Taiwanese tax accountant would be unlikely to help you as that’s out of their scope of advice… You would need a German accountant. Luckily… Taiwan isn’t that complicated and they did a good job simplifying things.
Yeah, I agree. I think he’d have a pretty hard time finding a competent accountant able to deal with the German side of things here anyway.
It’s not just that… They need to be licensed which is unlikely (but possible).
It’s easier to do what we do in Australia and “scope it out.” Basically we would ignore the foreign stuff exists and pretend he’s just a normal client… and then write a lot of disclaimers telling him to get a German advisor to deal with the German stuff… - I would presume Taiwanese would be even more lazy hahaha
This is for personal not business. Big businesses would go through the accountants at EY etc who team up with their German branch and consult each other etc… But the cost of that kind of service is out of the question for the average freelancer…
I am not particularly searching for a tax consultant who knows german tax rules, because as far as I know there won’t be any german tax for selling my company shares (I already pay this “leaving tax” when I move to Taiwan).
Yeah that’s why I am asking, since I am not sure about this part. It would be nice not to pay 40% tax on the sold shares…since that would surely end in a six figure tax payment (€).
if your total income including capital gains on foreign shares is more than 6.7mil, you should calculate AMT on the total income. you compare the amt and normal tax without the capital gains, and pay higher one.
freerance income as remuneration for your work done in taiwan is local income. income by sale of your company is foreign income. in the year you get the onetime big income, you will use thr AMT for all of your income. you can deduct the cost you spent to get the company. iiuc
if sale of your company means you sell your shares of the company, maybe it is the same with any transaction of foreign shares by taiwan tax resident investors. if it includes real properties or rights ect, it may be transaction of property. tax office people will give you more certain information for free.
Also, make sure to double-check the tax benefits of the Gold Card. I think it also includes some benefits regarding the AMT, but I am not sure what exactly they refer to:
If the foreigner obtains overseas income set forth in the provisions of Subparagraph 1, Paragraph 1, Article 12 of the Income Basic Tax Act in such tax year, such income shall be excluded from the basic income.
Or maybe make sure you stay in Germany a bit longer (or travel a lot - the potential tax savings in your case should pay for some nice trips around the world!) so you’re in Taiwan for less than 183 days in the year you sell your company. Then the AMT also won’t apply.
Regulations Governing Reduction and Exemption of Income Tax of Foreign Special Professionals
just an impression, but you might need to be employed with a salary more than 3mil ntd.
From my understanding, there are two tax benefits attached to the Gold Card: One regarding salary income and one regarding the AMT. But the latter one seems to be discussed much less frequently (probably because most people don’t have over $6.7 million per year in overseas income).
For a foreign special professional who has met the requirements in the preceding Article, during the first five years starting from the year when he/she for the first time has resided in the R.O.C. for a full 183 days of the year and has had an annual salary income of over NT$ 3 million, one half of the amount of the salary income exceeding NT$ 3 million for each such year may be excluded from the gross amount of consolidated income of the year for the assessment of individual income tax liability, and if he/she has obtained the income set forth in the provisions of Subparagraph 1, Paragraph 1, Article 12 of the Income Basic Tax Act, such income may be excluded from the income basic tax.
- Income, which is derived from sources outside the Republic of China and is excluded from gross consolidated income, as well as income which is exempted in accordance with Paragraph 1, Article 28 of the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau. However, if the aggregate of the two mentioned sources of income in a filing unit is less than NT$1,000,000, it may be excluded from the basic income.
From my understanding of this, Gold Card holders are exempted form the AMT on overseas income (but not from the other categories of AMT).
i am not very sure but, isn’t this the condition you can get the two benefits following the phrase?
i feel it may not be very reasonable that as far as you have a gold card, the second tax benefit is applicable indefinitely.
Thanks guys for all the valuable information! I’ll definitely check out the tax office.
From the info in your other post concerning shares and selling a foreign company, I suspect you might want to look into it a bit more - this is a situation I’m not confident that the tax office staff would be able to give entirely accurate advice on.
It seems from your post history that you’re currently in Taiwan for at least a couple of months this year too? You might already know this, but I’d try to keep your number of days here in 2023 to less than 90 if possible, because 90-183 days (or 90-182 days or whatever - I don’t remember the exact cutoffs) would mean being obliged to pay taxes on your freelance income at the shitty non-resident rate and make things more complicated overall.