Posts

Taiwan Tax - part 2 Taiwan tax calculation

Image
This post is geared to explain how income is taxed in Taiwan, with major differences between Taiwan and Canada taxation systems covered at the end. Please note that this post is general in nature and is not meant to be taken as tax advice. One should always consult with a tax professional to discuss one's specific tax situation. The following is an overview of taxation in Taiwan as it relates to Canadians: Tax treaty Canada has a tax treaty with Taiwan , and as such the following rules apply instead of either the Taiwan or Canada tax rules: Residency - is not based on number of days in the country, instead it is based on the following tests: Residence - the country you have a residence available to you, is your country of tax residency. If you have a residence in both countries, or in neither, then need to check the following test The place where center of vital interests lie - this is work, business, bank accounts, driver's license, family and the like If you are considered a

Taiwan Tax - part 1 overview

Image
While this may be long overdue, this will be the first of a few posts regarding taxes in Taiwan. This is intended as much for foreigners looking to gain insight into the Taiwanese tax system, as much as I also hope it reaches the Taiwan Ministry of Finance. Please note that these posts will all be general in nature and are not meant to be taken as tax advice. One should always consult with a tax professional to discuss one's specific tax situation. This first post will cover an overview of personal taxes in Canada, the U.S., and Taiwan. First here's a quick overview of the taxation systems in Canada and the U.S.: Both countries operate under a self reporting system, meaning, any person liable for tax in either or both countries is supposed to report all of their taxable income voluntarily. Each person is also required to ensure full compliance with the tax rules in place. Where the government is not satisfied that a person is meeting all of their obligations, the government thr

Learning Mandarin part 2

Image
 As I am just over a week into my studies at MTC NTNU, I thought I should provide an update regarding the process and how I am finding the course so far. First, you will hear people calling the school one of three things, all of which are the same school: NTNU MTC Shide My previous post covered everything up to the application and can be found here . First, the process. With my application submitted and having received what NTNU considers an invoice (prices in NTD), I had to decide between the following: Regular A (6-10 students) - $26,400 Intensive A (6-9 students) - $36,000 Regular B (13-20 students) - $21,600 Intensive B (13-20 students) - $28,800 The above costs were for summer 2021, and on top there was a registration fee of $1,000 if paid on or before the registration date, and $2,500 if paid after the registration date, along with $300 for accident insurance. The difference as I found out after I attended the registration day (via zoom due to lockdowns) between regular and inten

Bringing a cat into Taiwan part 2

Image
In the first post about my cat, I covered the process on the Canadian side up to the point of sending my cat to Taipei. In this post I will cover everything that occured on the Taiwanese side once my cat arrived. My cat arrived into Taipei at 4:55 am on Friday, as mentioned in part 1. As also previously mentioned, I hired Jet Fast Pet in Taipei to take care of clearing my cat from customs and picking her up from quarantine. I did this, as first it took me a couple of days to get confirmation that my cat will arrive to the cargo building and not the terminal. After I received this confirmation, I could not get the BAPHIQ office to confirm with the quarantine facility NCHU in Taichung that I will be able to pick up my cat at the end of seven days in quarantine. NCHU told me that they would need to receive a clearance certificate from BAPHIQ prior to releasing the cat to me, and that I was not likely to receive this until day 8, whereas BAPHIQ insisted that I needed to pick up the cat a

Taiwanese lunch and dinner dishes

Image
 Since I covered breakfast foods, figured it is only fair to cover some traditional lunch and dinner dishes. 刈包  Yì bāo - Taiwanese pork belly buns 地瓜球  Dìguā qiú - sweet potato balls 大腸包小腸 Dàcháng bāo xiǎocháng - sausage in sticky rice bun 大腸蚵仔麵線  Dàcháng hézǐ miàn xiàn - noodle soup with oysters and pork intestines 控肉飯  Kòng ròu fàn - braised pork on rice 水煎包  Shuǐ jiān bāo - steamed fried buns that come with a variety of fillings 滷肉飯  Lǔ ròu fàn - stewed pork rice 火雞肉飯  Huǒ jīròu fàn - turkey rice 牛肉麵  Niúròu miàn - beef noodles 皮蛋豆腐  Pídàn dòufu - century egg tofu 肉圓  Ròu yuán - Taiwanese meatballs 胡椒餅  Hújiāo bǐng - pepper cake 臭豆腐  Chòu dòufu - stinky tofu 蒸臭豆腐  Zhēng chòu dòufu - steamed spicy stinky tofu 蘿蔔糕  Luóbo gāo - turnip cake 蚵仔煎  Hézǐ jiān - oyster omelette 水餃 Shuǐjiǎo - dumplings 鍋貼 Guōtiē - fried dumplings 車輪餅  Chēlún bǐng - crispy wheel cake 鳳梨酥  Fènglí sū - pineapple cake 剉冰  Cuò bīng - shaved ice dessert with various toppings 花生捲冰淇淋   Huāshēng juǎn bīngqílín - pean

Taiwanese breakfast foods

Image
One of the greatest aspects of Taiwan has to be the food. This post will cover traditional  Taiwanese breakfast dishes. Master the Chinese of these and you will be able to order them anywhere. 油條  Yóutiáo - deep fried dough stick which is extremely delicious 燒餅  Shāobǐng - these are sesame biscuits that come in a variety of filings. and can be fully customized 蛋餅  Dàn bǐng - Taiwanese breakfast quiche that come in a variety of filings. and can be fully customized 蔥油餅  Cōng yóubǐng - green onion pancake 飯糰  Fàntuán - rice ball that comes with a variety of fillings 鹹豆漿  Xián dòujiāng - salty soy milk The following is a list of items commonly added to the above: pork - 豬肉 Zhūròu beef - 牛肉 niúròu chicken - 雞 肉 jī ròu egg - 蛋 dàn green scallion - 青蔥 qīngcōng

Bringing a cat into Taiwan part 1

Image
Can't forget the cat and the cat adventure. As I have included previously, discovered the issues that pertain to bringing the cat into Taiwan in September 2020, which required me to begin altering my plans. I managed to book the cat in for her rabies vaccine in October 2020, with a follow up for a titer test 30 days later. The rabies vaccine was straight forward, and so was the titer test. Got the titer test results just over 4 weeks later. At this point I started to figure out where to put my cat as I was planning to leave Canada before the 180 day mark following her titer test. I found Cats Castle in Oakville. It was the best decision I could have made. I will return to discuss Cats Castle shortly. With this set up it was time to find a company to ship the cat to Taiwan. For a pet exporter I turned to https://www.ipata.org/. This site has registered exporters by country and city. I chose to go with Worldwide Animal Travel  ("WAT"). More on WAT further down. With the ca