I’ll be filing my 1st personal income tax in Taiwan. I’ve been reading about it and also looked at info here:
I do intend to e-file. Can anyone explain how you obtained the “金融憑證” from your bank? Was it a big hassle?
What’s the equivalent of the annual tax statement from your employer? Is there any W-2 equivalent that they mail you?
Thanks
I think you can use the NHI card.
A quick update for forumosans filing tax returns in Taiwan: the deadline has apparently been extended to June 30 (i.e. pushed back a month).
Guy
Goddammit, you mean I scrambled to get everything ready for nothing?
Nah it’s just the Canadian in you, stepping up to pay your share. 
I already paid mine.
Guy
Heads up! In-person tax filing in Taipei, New Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan, and Yilan has apparently been suspended until May 28.
As noted above, the deadline for filing this year has been pushed back to June 30, so you might still be able to file in person in those locations, or—if you have the appetite for such things—you could try your hand with the online system.
Source: https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202105150017
Guy
Oh damn it. I was going to go in Thursday but forgot. I need to find out what I have to do about having missed last year’s tax filings because I was stuck outside the country.
It looks like the tax offices are still open, anyway, for those who still need to pick up their tax forms. From the same source @afterspivak links to above:
Disease prevention measures, such as checking visitors’ temperatures, will be in place for people who need to go to the tax office for other purposes.
At some point I may try the online filing. There’s probably a different thread somewhere for this, but have foreigners; APRC; claiming overseas parents as dependents had success with the online approach?
I’d be curious to know about this too.
Perhaps ask the savvy folks over here?
Guy
Are those available online somewhere, or do they need to be collected?
Dunno. They’re probably online somewhere. But my tax office is a pleasant waterfront walk away, and I have a feeling over the next weeks (months?) I’m going to be looking for reasons for lengthy walks. No swimming, possibly no cycling, and all that.
EDIT: Ha. Taiwan Up. Searched a bit and the tax office does indeed have them available online. The 2019 forms. Not the 2020 forms. That’s on the English side of the website; maybe the Chinese side has updated information.
https://www.ntbt.gov.tw/English/multiplehtml/cc0dcdd4a4a7460f8a9df0417ad45997
EDIT 2: same problem over here - 2019 forms, not 2020:
Your employer should have already provided you with withholding & nonwithholding tax statements.
Not necessarily - you may need to apply within your company. My university processes stuff and it’s all online somewhere, but I need to put in a bit of work to get it.
Yeah I finally got them. FYI for others: there’s no real label like “W2” - they’re simply called tax withholding statements.
What sort of documentation do you need for this? How much can you deduct from your tax if, say, you sent your parents 20k ntd a month.
Seems to depend on the tax office. I’ve only ever needed scans of my birth certificate with their names; scans of their passports (to show their age); and bills from last year with their name on them, to prove they were still around last year. But others here have needed to show some kind of evidence they’re actually sending (minimal sums of) money. I’ve never heard of the specific amount of money being a factor at all.
If I understand the tax system (a big if!), the deduction isn’t so much an amount as a percentage.
This.
@Wilkinson_Water if you tell us in which jurisdiction you’re filing, you can get more specific feedback.
Remember as well that exemptions for claiming dependents or lineal ascendants only apply if you’ve spend 183+ in Taiwan in the past taxation year (in this case, in 2020).
Guy
Taipei. Have spent 183 days + in Taiwan in 2020
Taipei City’s tax office (the one on Zhonghua Road) is very efficient but it is also known to be perhaps the most stringent (more so than New Taipei, as discussed by @lostinasia) in asking for some additional documents to really show you have sent funds to support lineal ascendants. Remittance receipts are one possibility here. It may be late to get such documents for 2020 (I don’t know your situation) but you can plan ahead for 2021 if needed.
Guy
Heads up! Now they’ve announced that starting Tuesday June 15 the tax offices will again accept in-person filing. The deadline to get this done for the 2020 taxation year is Wednesday June 30.
The report below says something about booking a time in advance to mitigate overcrowding. I have no idea how that will work.
Source: Taiwan to resume in-person income tax filing on June 15 | Taiwan News | 2021-06-10 14:58:00
Guy