Notice for New Immigrants About Taxation Registration When Operating an Online Store
Those who sell goods or services via the internet for profit with monthly sales amount exceeding NT$80,000 for sales of goods or NT$40,000 for sales of services should pay attention to the regulations of applying for taxation registration with the National Taxation Bureau.
The National Taxation Bureau of the Southern Area (the Bureau), Ministry of Finance (MOF) indicated that online shopping is now all the rage. Although online businesses can be operated without physical stores, to avoid fines, the sellers are required to apply for taxation registration and pay the business tax when monthly sales amount exceed the amount mentioned above.
The Bureau further expressed that, in recent years, the government has disseminated the regulations that online sellers should apply for taxation registration. However, many new immigrants are still unaware of such regulations in Taiwan. They believe that since they only make a little profit, they don’t have to apply for taxation registration. As a result, sellers failing to report their sales have to make a supplementary payment of the tax owed and be penalized by the National Tax Bureau.
To illustrate the importance of taxation registration, the Bureau provides the following example: Mr. A sold goods through an online shopping platform from August 2018 to October 2020, and the sales amounted to NT$7,500,000. Mr. A didn’t apply for taxation registration and evaded business tax totaling NT$375,000 (NT$750,000×tax rate 5%). Hence, the Bureau not only pursued Mr. A for the tax payment of NT$375,000 but also fined him an additional NT$375,000.
The Bureau would like to issue a reminder that, to avoid penalties, those who sell goods or services online with monthly sales amount exceeding certain criteria and have not applied for the required taxation registration yet should apply and pay the business tax as soon as possible before being reported by informants or investigated by investigators appointed by the tax collection authorities or the MOF.
Press Release Contact: Ms. Lin
First Legal Affairs Division
Tel:06-2223111 ext.8087
Reference URL：https://www.mof.gov.tw/Eng/singlehtml/f48d641f159a4866b1d31c0916fbcc71?cntId=fa81a7c802304a448cf1df798db60b13