I have been in taiwan for the last 4 years. i have been working for a international engineering firm working on major projects including high speed rail and other projects in asia.
I am so confused as i am on a normal visitors visa and have been for the last 4 years so have to do the visa run every 60 days (firm pays for).
Now i pay tax. i get a official tax receipt from the tax buro. our company has a chap who deals with this. I also have an official tax number.
I have spoken to my boss and he informs me that this is not unusual. many people in the same boat. people with ARC have a tax number and people like me have another tax number. I have seen my tax number on my official tax certificate that i get every year that shows how much tax i pay.
Is this legal??? i have never been asked questions anyway at immigration or visa offices outside taiwan.
Is this situation common? I am not the only one in our firm who has the same situation. many people come and go from Europe. many people in our office used to come for a good few years on a visitors visa yet all the taxes are payed for the foreigners.
every now and again my company takes my passport and makes copies for the tax buro.
they must know what the situation is but will they make trouble or because paying taxes they turn a blind eye.
I am just worried that one day they might nab me at the airport and deorted and never to return so i always carry tax certificates just in case.
prehaps someone can shed some light on this matter??? 
So far as I know ,it’s illegal to work in Taiwan without visa .
Nothing happen to you at the moment doesn’t mean that it’s ok.
Because the tax department , work permit department and the
police station are all different department. Those department don’t
really care if the other department is doing their job . So we can’t really know what will happen if one of those department kind of start to do their job one day. Because the tax department only collect the tax, because you declare , and the work permit department will approve your work permit if you are qualify and after you get the permit from the work permit department you have to take this permit to the police station
and they will give you an ARC card showing which company hire you for work in Taiwan. Then you are legal to stay and work in Taiwan . You can check the application on the website : www.evta.gov.tw
This has been going on for four years. now why when i enter and leave taiwan i am never asked questions. even when i apply for a visa i always get 6 months multiple for max stay of 60days.
I have never been refused a visa. my passport is full they can see and am convinced they know.
our company is a top worldwide engineering consultant whos mangers in taiwan are european. now they dont seem to care to much about it.
I just find it strange that our accounting department make copies of every page in my passport and they go to the tax buro and all they do is stamp stamp stamp and now questions.
I feel that because i pay tax and can prove it with original proper blue roc tax clearance certificates then they dont care.
what is the worst they can do? i just cant beleive that for 4 years i never get a drilling from visa offices all over asia and at taiwan immigration. surley its on computer and they know exactly how many times you come in and out. I thought that if immigration suspect anything wrong they can immediatley refuse you back in. is that now right???
at one point there were 30 foreigners in our office for highspeed rail project and most stayed for about 2 years and all on visitors visa and all these people had taxed payed and were given tax clearance receipts.
Does anyone know if the governmet turns a blind eye?? maybe becuase its a government project they dont want to issue averybody ARC’s because then there will be thousends of foreigners due to it being such a big project the government dont want to issue arc’s and they waiver the ARC’ if the foreigners companies pay tax???
hope someone out there in or had same experience, let me know what the outcome (if any) was.
:s
sorry before i miss typed, i said that our accountants go down to the tax office with copies of all my passport pages to record all my entries and exists, all they do is stamp stamp stamp and sort everything out and
they ASK NO questions whats so ever. To this day not a dicky bird. and for the last 4 years i have been in taiwan full time with the visa runs of course so dont understand why no Visa office or immigration official question me??
HELP 
The answer is simple. This is Taiwan. Everything hinges on guanxi and Nita Ing has cartloads of it. Don’t worry.
yes i know this is taiwan and anything goes but pleeeeeeeesee need all the assistance and feed back from anyone else whos had this same experience.
The tax department doesn’t care, as long as they get the money. I have heard that there is a special way to pay tax for people that are acting as “consultants” and aren’t really employed by the company as such. That’s just something I heard, I am not an expert.
yes, in my visa application from the company it states that i am an engineering consultant and sometimes i have to hand in a letter to say that i am employed by a company in my own country. This i get any company in my country to give me a letter to say i work for them, fathers company, friends company. not that i do its just a stupid formality that means nothing to me and i hardly get asked for it at visa application offices. as a consultant then can one “work” here on a visitors visa.