Job Discussion Forums

creztor · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 476

Many schools do the trick of lying about your income to pay less tax. We now also have to pay 18% for the first 6 months and my January pay packet looked very small...

yamahuh · Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 1033 Location: Karaoke Hell

Rooster_2006 · Joined: 24 Sep 2007 Posts: 984

yamahuh · Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 1033 Location: Karaoke Hell

Was her English atrocious??
When I was there, there was a manager called Betty who had the worst accent and most bizarre inflection and intonation I've ever heard. She was only there a short time and was 'let go' shortly before my wife and I left - I hope to god she's not back there again.

Rooster_2006 · Joined: 24 Sep 2007 Posts: 984

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

yamahuh · Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 1033 Location: Karaoke Hell

You're falling behind the rest of the class JZ'er

New Taiwan Tax Rules for Foreigners

There has been a change to the tax law in Taiwan for foreign taxpayers. The change (as detailed on the government web site) from 2009 is as follows:

All foreign taxpayers who stay in the ROC less than 183 days in a calendar year are now non-resident. The old regulation �he or she stays for 183 days or more and continues to stay uninterrupted over the next year without leaving the ROC, he or she will continue to be treated as a resident�� has expired.

This is not good news as it means that for any teachers leaving Taiwan between Jan and June there will be no tax rebate and the tax rate will be 20%. It also means that teachers will now be charged 20% tax for all salary received between January and June. There will of course still be a rebate for teachers who stay longer than 183 days in the year.

Summary
From 2010. the tax rate for teachers is 18% for the first 183 days of every calendar year.
After 183 days (within the same calendar year) the rate will drop to approximately 6% or 10% for the remainder of the year.
At the end of each year, teachers who stayed in the country for at least 183 days (within the same calendar year) will be eligible for a good tax rebate on the tax paid in the first 183 days.
Please refer to Taiwan's Tax Admistration for updates or further information : www.ntat.gov.tw

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

Well none of my bosses know about it. Until they find out it is irrelevant.

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

This statue is useless. Some bosses just pay taxes once a year at the end of the year. What will the government do it your boss only pays the correct amount for the entire year?

JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

Rooster_2006 · Joined: 24 Sep 2007 Posts: 984

That's utterly ridiculous! I have to pay 20% taxes for the first half of EACH YEAR? On my pathetic little income? Jesus, that's socialism. And for people who like socialism, there's a certain country right across the straight which is rapidly becoming more lucrative and appealing...

creztor · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 476

It is now 18% guys Smile

Down 2% from last year. Easier to pick on the foreigners and make them pay tax since so few Taiwanese actually declare their income.

yamahuh · Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 1033 Location: Karaoke Hell

http://www.reachtoteachrecruiting.com/taiwan-tax-rules.html

It's something you can negotiate.
We started a job last summer after having been in the country for 2 years and the head accountant told us that we would have to pay 18% tax for the first 6 months of our employment with his school as we hadn't paid nearly enough at our last place. I told him that was a deal breaker as our new boss had told us we'd be paying 'less than $2K' a month.
This guy was expecting us to pay about $13K.

We argued back and forth - him telling me it was the new rules and me telling him that we had to find a way around it or we would leave. Eventually he said that he would just underdeclare our earnings (as usual) but if we left early we'd be penalised by being forced to pay the difference between we what we should have paid and what we had actually paid.

Works for me. I pay $1350 on $68K.
Do the math - less than 2% tax on actual earnings

Rooster - don't sweat it.
If you get that job I helped you with I can guarantee that you won't be paying 18% tax - trust me on that one. I think we paid a total of $3K each off our last paycheque and that was all we paid in tax for the entire year...

Rooster_2006 · Joined: 24 Sep 2007 Posts: 984

Actually, I just did the math again and realized that under this new deal, I'm BETTER OFF.

This is because my current employer pays me 500 AFTER TAX. In other words, I get the same hourly pay and she has to pay more taxes (which will mean a bigger tax refund to me if I stay past June 30).

Haha, funny how that works...

On the other hand, she's an unethical liar, so she's probably been underpaying the whole time.