A Unique Way of Playing the Lottery

"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants."

-Epictetus

The Taiwanese lottery is different from most lottery is around the world. In the United States if you want to play the lottery normally you would go to a convenience store and buy a ticket but in Taiwan you play the lottery every time you go shopping! It doesn't matter if you are buying new clothes at a store or a pack of gum at the local 7-Eleven you are automatically playing the national lottery. Every receipt that you get from any purchase has an eight digit number that could allow you to win a lot of money but like playing any lottery your odds aren't great. 

On the 25th day of every odd month there are a series of winning numbers that are announced you can find the current numbers at this site.  The first prize is 10,000,000 NT (about $300,000 USD) and the second prize is 2,000,000 NT (about $60,000) third prize is 200,000 NT (about $300). There is also a small prize of 200 NT to be won if you match the last three digits of any of the winning numbers. Lastly if you can mach the last seven to four digits of the first prize you can win these amounts.

Last 7 digits = win 40,000  NT

Last 6 digits = win 10,000 NT

Last 5 digits = win 4,000 NT

Last 4 digits = win 1,000 NT

Last 3 digits = win 200 NT

Disclaimer: As noted on my last blog the Taiwanese government loves their taxes and there is no big surprise that you will be taxed 20% if you win anything over 1,000 NT.  

There is also one more tip about playing this lottery. It only works for the two months previous to whatever month it is right now. The lottery numbers were announced on the 25th of this month so these numbers are good for December and November. We made the mistake of mixing in our receipts that we had from this month and the rest of our receipts. So we had to be very careful to separate any receipts that were from January. I know it all sounds rather complex and it kind of is in my opinion. It was put in place to encourage people to keep their receipts for tax purposes. A good idea in my opinion and is one of the first times I've been careful to keep my receipts. Even though the majority of them are for groceries and cups of coffee. 

Beware of the 18% Taxation for 183 Days in Taiwan

"...but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." -Benjamin Franklin

One big surprise about coming to Taiwan is the taxes. In any country you work in, inevitably you're going to be taxed something. Korea we were taxed around 6% and in Russia it was something similar. Before coming to Taiwan we just assumed that taxes would be fairly low but we had a big surprise when we got here.

In Taiwan they have something very special called the 183 day rule. This rule applies for anybody who comes from a different country and works here. That means teachers, businessman, maids or anybody in between that gets a wage in the country. This rule basically states that you will be taxed 18% of your total wage for 183 days out of the year. You can get a refund for this but typically you'll have to stay in the country for over a year to be able to go to the tax office and get your refund. This means if you get here in the beginning of the tax year and on 1 January you would have to stay until April of next year to get your refund! Also if you get here in July of any given year you won't be in the country long enough to get your refund because there would be less than 183 days left in the year. 

Also if you come to Taiwan and you go on a vacation for a week or two those days won't count for the 183 days. If you make it to 183 days you can get 12% of that money back when you apply for your refund. But nevertheless when you first get into the country very important to get as much money as you can and if you're like us and just assume taxes wouldn't be so bad. It's a big surprise to find out that 18% of your wage will be taken from you for the first 183 days.In conclusion there are a lot of little things you have to watch out for when starting work in Taiwan, and one of the big ones is taxes.

Contracts and Apartments

“Love all but trust few.”

-William Shakespeare  

Our school

Lessons Learned

-       - Be very careful with your working contract. The wording can be misleading and you might be getting something totally different to what you expect

-      -  In Taiwan you typically paid the first month’s rent and the last two months’ rent. Contracts typically last for a year and if they are broken you may not get that money back.  

This is going to be a post about the things that are less positive and what better place to start than to talk about our job. We work at a cram school called American Eagle Institute. I guess it is a well-known school here in Taiwan and it seemed like a good place to work. To be honest it is not that horrible but we ran into a couple surprises when we first arrived in the country. Looking at our contract initially I read that our “employer will prepare accommodation with a rent of NT 10,000 (about $300 USD) per month…” We assumed that we would be provided a stipend on top of our monthly wage. After we arrived to Taiwan and when we were looking at our first apartment with our recruiter I asked her about the NT 10,000 and said that since my fiancée and I will be getting this money it shouldn’t be a problem to pay a little extra to get a nicer place. She paused for a minute and said that we won’t get that money and American Eagle should take that part out of the contract because it is confusing.  At this time we just arrived to the country and were scraping together our money to get here and now we learn that we aren’t getting the rent stipend that we thought we would. There was nothing we could do but ask the recruiter to ask if we could look at cheaper places.

At the time we were staying with another foreigner in Taoyuan City about an hour away and we were starting work in one day. This meant that we had to find an apartment in one day. So, I went on 591.com.tw (probably the best site to find apartments in Taiwan but you need to use Google Chrome to translate). I found one small reasonably priced place and sent a link to our recruiter in hopes that we would find something soon.

The next day we went to the hospital to get our health check done. This is a requirement for your Alien Registration Card or ARC. This is a standard piece of documentation and the process is similar in many countries. Basically you are required to get a chest x-ray to check to see if you have TB, an eye exam and a blood test to see if you have HIV / AIDS.

The view of the outside

The entrance of our home 

After the health check we went to look at an apartment that cost 14,000 NT a month, plus a 7,000 NT realtor's fee. That's where we found out that the wording in the contract was a bit deceiving, which was really a bummer because as we found that out, we were standing in a beautiful apartment, on the 7th floor, with an amazing balcony with a garden. It was ideal. Of course we could not afford it, and we left reluctantly. By this point our recruiter had only lined up more expensive places, so we were disappointed with the whole process. We next went to an apartment quite far away from the school, about 3 miles away. That doesn't sound far compared to commute times in the US but at that point we didn't have a scooter and had no idea how to use the buses. There are no sidewalks here, at least where we live. A bit discouraging. We went in a little more optimistic though since the apartment was 9,000 NT. The apartment was not in a new building. The view was the only good thing. The kitchen was very very bare.

The next day we went to look at another apartment, but at this point our recruiter had not looked into anything cheaper as we had requested. The next apartment took a while to find but eventually we got there. The place looked okay at first glance. It had plenty of room and looked fairly clean. It was a little noisy because it was next to a busy road that has a constant flow of large shipping trucks and scooters that have defining exhaust. The place was 11,000 NT (about $320). Since we started work the next day and the recruiter didn’t have any time to show us any more places so we had to settle for something that was not quite ideal and sign a year contract for this apartment. While we were signing our contract we learned that in Taiwan you paid three months of rent in advance not just two. Also, rental contracts are one year and if you break your contract you might not get that money back. While making this agreement you finalize the agreement by fingerprinting each page with red ink. This is done in combination with your signature. It was basically one of the most official rental contracts I have ever signed.

Our contract for the apartment

New Experiences in a New Land

Shortly after Thanksgiving my fiancée and I made the decision to move to Yangmei, Taiwan and work as English Teachers at a school called, “American Eagle Institute.” It’s about an hour train ride from Taipei and there is not a lot here besides factories, some farms on the outskirts, a few schools and your typical local restaurants and businesses.  With that said it really isn’t really a bad place, but it isn’t the most interesting place in the country.

We are new here and have not had the chance to get out a whole lot. During one weekend we were able to take a short trip to Taipei but we were only there for a couple of hours. Besides this I have explored some trails around Shih-men Reservoir, a few local markets, the farms behind our apartment, restaurants and a few temples that I stumbled across. 

There are positive and negative aspects to anyplace you live no matter how nice it is. It is my goal to give Taiwan a fair chance and find things that are nice in their own way. This blog is from the perspective of two EFL teachers that have taught in South Korea, Russia, France and now here in Taiwan. I hope someone out there finds it useful, interesting or just something to read for a few. 

Thank you for support and checking out this Blog. 

#Taiwan, #Teaching EFL, #Yangmei