Foreigners to get subsidies from Taipei government
A report on Friday last week misstated that the Taipei City Government wasn’t going to offer ARC and APRC holders cash subsidies and tax breaks
By Steven Crook and Michael Turton / Contributing reporters
Over the weekend, among expatriate circles, a report by the Central News Agency (CNA), which stated that individual foreign residents — unlike Taiwanese citizens — wouldn’t be eligible for one-off cash handouts of NT$3,000 to NT$6,000 if they were encountering financial difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, caused some dismay and a good amount of annoyance.
Foreigners who’ve been living and paying taxes in the capital for years felt aggrieved and excluded. And all for no reason, it seems: Tom Chou (周台竹), commissioner of the Taipei Mayor’s Office for External Affairs, on Monday said: “We won’t exclude a foreign individual, so long as he or she pays tax to the central or local government.”