I ( German citizen, married to a R.O.C. wife ) am planning to move to TW together with my wife next year in spring on a marriage-based ARC, which, to my understanding, includes the right to work legally in TW in most kinds of jobs. I am currently working as a specialist / technical purchaser for our family business, and am planning to continue to do so while in Taiwan ( remote office ). My work will include short trips to other Asian regions, but overall I will be in TW for the 183 days or more a year required for residency. Our company does not have any branch in TW and does not plan to establish one . So, what currently puzzles me a bit is the following :
-am I entitled to file due income tax by myself or do I need to have an employer in TW?
( side note: Germany and the R.O.C. have a double tax agreement based on residency )
-who will pay for my health/labor insurance in this kind of Situation?
Yes. If you are staying for more than 183 days in Taiwan, you must file income tax in Taiwan, and will be taxed at normal rates. You may be self employed. If you have significant personal income in Germany, it may also be taxed in Taiwan on the basis of the tax agreement you’ve already discovered. Married couples file together by default.
Assuming you are talking about Taiwan’s National Health Insurance: without a Taiwanese employer to enroll you, you will be the one to enroll. Note that in a ‘standard’ case, monthly contributions are split between the employee (30%), employer (60%) and government subsidy (10%). As someone self employed, you’ll pay 100% of the monthly contribution. Information on NHI contributions can be found here: https://www.nhi.gov.tw/english/Content_List.aspx?n=B9C9C690524F2543&topn=46FA76EB55BC2CB8
At least, that’s if you don’t have a Taiwanese spouse … there’s probably a way to get on your spouse’s registration, but I’m not familiar with that area.
If your wife works you can get insurance cheaper through her job.
Make sure your reported income is under the amount for which you will have tax liability and you’ll get it all back every year. It keeps you legit and you won’t be double taxed. It won’t look strange when the bank transfers start coming, either. I also suggest splitting the transfers to multiple parties if your wife has relatives you can trust.
Thanks @fifieldt for this table you have provided. In the table labelled ‘Payroll Brackets on which Premiums Are Calculated’, what does ‘Bracket income differential’ mean?
It appears to be the difference between the highest ‘salary basis’ in one backet and the lowest ‘salary basis’ in the next. I’m not sure why that’s useful
Thanks I originally thought it was the premium payable monthly for those income brackets, but it appears to be just useless information, as all premiums are based off the same base rate. Strange…
Edit: This table ‘Payroll brackets…’ appears only to be used in mapping a salary range to a ‘base salary’ to be applied against the base insurance premium rate. Seems an unnecessary complication, perhaps a way of eeking out a few more dollars as the base incomes are invariably the maximum of each range.
The OP is wise to cover off this insurance cost in his research, as if his wife is not working, and if any dependents are coming along, the cost will be significant (~ 4.69% per).
If it’s less than 6 months of total stay per year, u should be taxed in your home country! And then look up if there is an existing agreement between Taiwan and your country to avoid double-taxation.
I believe @qwerty_0 might be referring to withholding tax. Residents salaries are withheld by their employer at a rate of 5%. This money is paid directly to the government - effectively an early payment for one’s individual income tax return. Non-residents salaries are also subject to withholding tax, but at the higher rate of 18%.
(Ed: but reading again I see you probably already knew this - sorry)
Correct…I also have to confirm I want the resident rate at mid-year which is annoying but not a big deal. Some will just automatically move it back to 5%.
