Taiwan Legal Update: Exclusive Overview on Major Regulations to be Rolled out on January 1, 2019

Taiwan Legal Update: Exclusive Overview on Major Regulations to be Rolled out on January 1, 2019

Exclusive Overview on Major Regulations to be Rolled out on January 1, 2019

  1. Ministry of Labors
  2. The monthly minimum wage in Taiwan is increased by NTD$1,100. That is, from NTD$ 22,000 to NTD$ 23,100 from 1st of January, while the hourly minimum wage is increased by NTD$ 10 from NTD$ 140 to NTD$ 150.
  3. Long-term Night shift labors are obliged to undergo mandatory health checkup every year from 2019, and the expenses shall be paid by the employers.
  4. Blue-collar foreign workers and overseas students’ working visa can be applied online only. Except for the construction industry and the employment of the translators for an agency, all blue collar foreign labors and their managements shall obtain their working permits or employment licenses, or update their information via the internet. The government no longer accept written applications sent by postal mail or fax.
  5. Companies applying to listed on the centralized trading floor or over the counter trading places are required to submit the records of labor-management meetings to Ministry of Labor.
  6. All listed companies and over-the-counter companies shall report the salary information of non-managers, full-time employees. Besides, enterprises offering monthly salary less than NTD$40,000 or annual salary not meeting certain standards must specify why such “low salary” is given to their staffs.

 

  1. Ministry of Finances
  2. The tax deduction for the individual comprehensive taxation is raised to NTD$120,000 (and double deductions for spouses).
  3. The maximum tax rate for the comprehensive income tax is reduced to 40%, while the 45% tax rate for net comprehensive income over NTD$10 million is deleted.
  4. The Business income tax rate is raised to 20%. However, for the taxable income is less than NTD$ 500 thousand, the tax rate is 19% in 2019, then it will be adjusted to 20% after 2020.
  5. The tax rate of undistributed profit is reduced from 10% to 5%.
  6. The withholding rate of foreign investors is raised to 21%.
  7. The tax rebate for foreign passengers is doubled. The foreign visitors purchase specific goods can get a maximum of NTD$ 48 thousand tax refund. Certain business can extend the exempt period of issuing electronic invoices until the end of 2020.
  8. Cross-border e-commerce shall issue a cloud invoice from 2019, with a one-year grace period given.

 

III.        Financial Supervisory Commission

  1. No transaction or stock delivery for official makeup workday. Since 2015, The Monday before a Tuesday holiday or the Friday after a Thursday holiday will be designated as an extra vacation day, in order to create four-day weekends. And the extra days will have to be made up on the Saturday before the long weekends occur. During the makeup Saturday, the securities and futures markets will not trade or deliver stocks or goods.
  2. The premium rate of ordinary insurance companies will also increase from 9.5% to 10%.
  3. The definition of various medical insurance diseases will be standardized to reduce claims disputes.
  4. Investors must sign a declaration form in order to purchases foreign funds with commissions.
  5. Credit card payment platform of the official office, such as medical expenses and water bill, does not need to pay the handling fee since 2019.
  6. If the chairman and general manager who appoints the business or its related companies retired then appointed as consultants, they should be disclosed in the notes to the annual financial report.
  7. When an insurance company sells investment-type insurance to elderly people over 70 years old, the process must be video or audio recorded.
  8. 120 financial institutions and listed companies with a capital of more than NTD$10 billion on the island, are mandatory to establish corporate governance personnel. The policy will be expanded to a listed company with a capital of more than NTD$ 2 billion in 2021.
  9. The listed company with a foreign shareholding ratio of more than 30% or a capital of more than NTD$10 billion will be required to publish the English version of the « Annual Financial Report », « Annual Report » and « Shareholders’ Meeting Handbook ».

 

  1. Ministry of Education
  2. The registration statistics of colleges and universities enrollment rate will include students study abroad.
  3. Animal protection is included in the 12-year national education curriculum. Governments at all levels shall popularize education related to the laws and regulations on animal protection to improve Taiwanese knowledge on animal protection.
  4. For college application, universities and colleges could only examine high school students’ performance via four, instead of fives subjects in national wide General Scholastic Ability Test.

 

  1. Ministry of Transportation and Communications
  2. People reporting traffic violations to are required to submit their real names and valid national identification number in a bid to curb malicious reporting.

 

  1. Ministry of Health and Welfare
  2. Around 60 kinds of drugs are excluded from national insurances payment if the doctors prescribe them repeatedly.
  3. The new medical doctors’ education system, which includes six years of medical education, plus two years of post-graduation general medical training (PGY) system with solid anesthesia training, is implemented.
  4. As the first country in Asia, Taiwan’s “Patient Right to Autonomy Act” come into force on January 6, allowing patients in five clinical conditions who have made a predetermined health care decision, may instruct medical institutions or physicians to partially or fully terminate, withdraw, or withhold life-sustaining treatments, artificial nutrition, and hydration.

 

VII.      Executive Yuan

  1. Plans to welcome overseas Taiwanese businessmen to return to the island for investment become effective. If Taiwanese businessmen meet the conditions of a certain scale of investment and create the employment opportunity for Taiwanese worker, they will benefit from increasing the quota of foreign workers by 10% according to the current system, but not more than 40%.
  2. The budget for provincial government sectors will be zeroed.

3.  The third generation of wireless mobile telecommunications (3G) services will be terminated on December 31, 2018. From January 1, 2019, mobile network users will be able to use the 4G mobile broadband seamlessly.


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