Zero Taiwan-sourced income - need to file?

I am a dual US citizen / Taiwan National with Household Registration (inactive status, “Overseas Chinese” stamp), living in the US. My understanding is that if I come back to Taiwan for over 31 days, I am considered a tax resident for that year.

Let’s say I come back for a 5-week vacation. if I have zero Taiwan-sourced income - essentially no financial or economic footprint in Taiwan - do I need to file for that year, declaring $0? Or is it like the US, where there is a threshold below which no filing is necessary?

Thanks all.

Taiwan doesn’t really care.

Unless you made millions during your 5 week vacation you don’t need to file.

Lots of people engage in tax evasion in Taiwan and the government isn’t doing much about this (for example landlord not reporting rental income, adding 10% when paying by credit card so they don’t have to put cash transactions on the book, etc.)

I’m not sure the actual law but if you made no income, you have nothing to report. Unlike the US Taiwan doesn’t care what you made outside of Taiwan.

See the 183 day rule.

An individual is considered (a tax) resident if they remain in Taiwan for 183 days or more, and the individual will be taxed on remuneration received for services rendered in Taiwan.

https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2014/04/taiwan-thinking-beyond-borders.html#:~:text=An%20individual%20is%20considered%20resident,less%20in%20a%20calendar%20year.

Thank you. I believe the 183-day rule applies to foreigners, but for nationals with household registration it appears to be a different story:

Residence - An individual is considered resident in Taiwan for tax purposes if he/she has a household registration in Taiwan and is present in Taiwan for more than 31 days in a calendar year, or has a household registration in Taiwan and his/her center of vital interests is in Taiwan. A foreign national who resides in Taiwan for at least 183 days in a calendar year also is considered resident in Taiwan."

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Tax/dttl-tax-taiwanhighlights-2020.pdf

Like I said, you have no income so what would you report?

Sure if you made a million NT trading stocks or something, then sure you probably need to declare that, but other than that, don’t worry about it.

It’s highly unlikely you will make a million NT trading stocks during the 5 week period though… not the way the economy is going.

OP said zero Taiwan-sourced income, not zero income.

Yes, one issue might be that Taiwan has some form of AMT that could potentially apply to US income, even if Taiwan-sourced income is $0.

@Taiwan_Luthiers I understand your point thanks. I’m just trying to understand what doing it by the book means in this case.

What is supposed to happen is the price of something would have the sales tax built in but when you pay cash they omit some sales from the books so they can pay less tax

Based on this. seems foreign sourced income is assessed under the AMT regime. so “technically” if you were to be a tax resident after 31 days, it seems this would only be an issue if your foreign sourced income is over $6.7M NT. At least that’s what it seems like based on reading the details.

Keep it under 31 days or time that 5 week vacation over new years so it’s spread across 2 years? I guess that’s the option IF they were super aggressive about it, which it sounds like they are not.

Def want to double check those points with an actual tax pro though

OK. I interpreted your ‘inactive’ household registration to mean it was subject to automatic ‘Moving-out Registration’ (or cancellation).

Those absent from ROC for 2 years and over shall be subject to Moving-out Registration.

https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=D0030006

AMT is only payable for full tax residents, ie 183 days and over.

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