"...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.
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