Well, another way to handle it would be just figure out the amount of tax you would have saved if you could claim the deduction, then divide that by 12 and request that as a discount on your rent. The deduction is NT$120,000, e.g. if you’re paying 20% tax you can assume you’re losing NT$24,000, or NT$2,000 per month.
is my understanding. I’ve seen enough tax evasion shenanigans at the university as well.
It certainly does happen in different countries, but the extent to which it matters for tenants depends on the extent to which they can benefit from declaring the rent they pay.
In Ontario there’s a refundable tax credit for rent and/or property tax, but it doesn’t yield anything unless you have an income low enough that you can’t really afford to live where you live. 
I think in Taiwan anything under 20,000nt is tax free, so you can report that all you want if your rent is under 20,000. But I suspect that it wouldn’t yield much anyways.
I remember doing the math with other friends and consulted Taiwanese people years ago. It is not worth reporting the rent unless you have a business or you are paying for a place you can’t afford.
This is why I have no problem not declaring all of my overseas income that enters Taiwan. If landlords don’t have to pay tax, why do I?
If I’m right it’s 2k per mth@20% tax rate, 3k/mth if you are over 30% tax rate (deductible is 120k per year as mentioned earlier).
How much money do you have to make to be on the 20-30% tax bracket again?
You can google it.
- Rent for housing: Rent for housing in Taiwan paid by a taxpayer, his/her spouse and lineal dependents used as a residence rather than for business purposes or to carry out professional services may be deducted from consolidated income up to NT$120,000 per year per tax return. However, no deduction is available for taxpayers who have taken the deduction for home mortgage interest on the same tax return.
120k of your total income will not be taxed, doesn’t mean you will not have to pay 120k in taxes.
I believe you pay the The highest band tax Rate x The remaining income after tax rebate
So your savings would be10% of 120k off or 20% of 120k or 30% of 120k , depending on the highest tax band you enter.
I assume that’s correct anyway.
Hmm no,
If you made 3M last year, but after all deductions your taxable income is less than 2.42M, you still fall under the 20% bracket instead of 30%.
Yeah that’s what I mean. After all the deductions.
Hows Google working for ya. 
Damn it, first time in a long time I look for info about taxes… Usually someone else does them for me.
I’ve had one place that was all above board and I reported my rent. It does make a difference (depending on your tax rates), but only a small amount each month (though if you’re short of cash, it could be worth it).
However, I’ve had several landlords that have made clear that if I wanted to report tax, my rental fee would be higher.
I’ve been lucky and always had good landlords (and ladies), and I would be very wary about upsetting them. The cost and hassle of moving each year is much higher than any money you could save on tax. If you find a good, reasonably priced place, it’s worth keeping.
Is that difference worth the increase in monthly rent from your landlord? I think that was the argument in question. But yeah, a lot depends on your tax bracket, specially if you are really close to getting to a lower bracket and 120k would help you reach that goal.
30% is applied for just the part of your income exceeding 20% bracket. if the 120k changes the highest bracket, still not much difference. Iirc.
This!
The landlords ain’t gonna be paying taxes on their rental incomes under any circumstances. If you insist on declaring your rental payments to the tax authority, then the landlord will insist on a higher rent, so that higher additional rent is going to be used to pay the taxes and they still ain’t gonna pay taxes.
The Taiwan way.
Yeah, I totally agree. It’s a bit naive to think that the landlord is really going to be paying the tax out of his/her own pocket rather than just tacking it onto the rent. It’s like airlines letting you have a “complimentary” luggage allowance or “employer contributions” to health insurance, which are ultimately paid by the passenger/employee, irrespective of how they choose to write it on the ticket/balance sheet.
All this is beside the point, the OP just wants to get his rebate as legally entitled to it.
Whether a given landlord thinks he can hike up the rent to cover his cost , well that’s something else. They can’t all hike up the rent.
Why should I pay income tax then for doing an honest days work …Nobody is saying I shouldn’t pay tax because then I could pay more for other stuff or everything will go up in price because people have more net income. Nope they just will say you should pay income tax. The state needs the revenue to fund public services and pay for the defence forces. Why I should pay for that and not somebody who is renting out a house doing nothing, not even living in Taiwan ?!