Tax Planning & Wealth Succession

If a decedent leaves any property, a return is generally due within six months from death even if the estate is below the exemption. An ROC national habitually resident in Taiwan reports worldwide assets; a national habitually resident abroad or a foreign national reports only Taiwan-situs assets. A legitimate-reason extension must be requested in writing before the deadline; ordinarily it is up to three months, with longer relief possible for force majeure or another special circumstance. Failure to file may be fined up to twice the tax assessed; omission or understatement after filing may be fined up to twice the tax evaded, and fraud or other improper means one to three times. A voluntary late or supplemental return before any third-party report or tax-authority investigation may qualify for penalty relief, but tax and interest remain due. Include gifts made within two years before death to the spouse, statutory heirs under Civil Code Articles 1138 and 1140, or those heirs' spouses; they are treated as part of the estate.

For 2026, the exemption is NT$2.44 million per donor per calendar year, not per child. Each parent gifting their own property has a separate exemption. If one donor's ordinary gifts to all recipients from January 1 through December 31 do not exceed it, no tax is due and a return is generally unnecessary. Once a gift pushes the annual total above the exemption, file within thirty days beginning the next day. A return may still be required below the exemption when a tax-exemption or exclusion certificate is needed to register title. Keep gift agreements, transfers and source-of-funds records for cash. Spousal gifts are excluded, although registered transfers still require filing and a certificate. Each parent may also exclude up to NT$1 million given to a child upon marriage; current practice generally requires the gift within six months before or after registration, supported by household and funds-flow records. Gifts across years may use separate annual exemptions, but all ordinary gifts by one donor within each year are aggregated.

Do not ignore the notice, but a recheck does not require advance payment. For an ordinary assessment showing tax due, file within thirty days beginning the day after the payment period expires, provided the payment slip was served. Zero-tax, public-notice and certain other cases use different starting points, so service matters. Appeal within thirty days after service of the recheck decision, then commence administrative litigation within the two-month peremptory period after the appeal decision. A timely recheck requires deferral of referral for compulsory execution, with no one-third payment then. To continue deferral after an adverse recheck while appealing, generally file timely and pay one third of the tax determined. If payment is genuinely difficult and approved, equivalent collateral may be furnished; a property-restraint route exists where both are difficult. An appeal or suit alone does not automatically stay execution, and deferral does not forgive tax or interest. A tax penalty differs: during a proper remedy, no one-third payment is required and the penalty is not executed under Article 39. Missing a deadline normally finalises the assessment; reinstatement, overpayment refund or extraordinary review is limited.

Not necessarily; remittance is not the test. Since 2023, a foreign related enterprise is a CFC if it is in a low-tax jurisdiction—generally a statutory rate of 14% or less, or a territorial/remittance regime—and, at year-end, the individual and related persons own at least 50% directly or indirectly, or control personnel, finances or operations. For an individual, income recognition further requires the individual, spouse and relatives within the second degree to own at least 10% directly at year-end, with neither exemption applying. Adjusted earnings are multiplied by direct ownership and holding period and included as business income in individual basic income; this is not a deemed distribution, and amounts already included are not taxed again on actual distribution. CFC and other foreign-source income below NT$1 million per filing household is excluded from basic income. Exemptions cover substantive local operations—fixed premises, local employees actually operating the business and passive income below 10%—or generally earnings no more than NT$7 million, subject to anti-splitting aggregation. Meeting the 50% or control test requires ownership and structure disclosure; meeting 10%, or preserving CFC losses, adds income schedules and financial statements. A Taiwan business uses the same 50%/control and exemption tests without the individual 10% threshold and recognises investment income by direct ownership and holding period. Review every entity and ownership tier.