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Labor
1. Draft Amendment to Act of Gender Equality in Employment
On 1 July 21, the Executive Yuan announced the draft amendment to Act of Gender Equality in Employment. We summarize below.
(1) The pregnancy check-up leave increases from 5 to 7 days.
(2) Subject to the consensus of both parties, the employee of the employer with no more than 30 employees may negotiate with the employer to apply deduction of working hours or adjustment of working schedule.
(3) No matter whether the spouse of the employee is employed or not, the employee may apply for unpaid parental leave and family care leave without providing justifiable reasons to the employer.
Reported by: David Tsai / Alex Li
2. The Business Entity May Conduct Labor-Management Meeting via Video Conference
On 13 July 2021, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) issued a press release that the business entity may conduct labor-management conference via video conference during the pandemic upon the resolution of labor-management conference, or the meeting notice stating that the conference will be held via video conference with the approval by the first resolution of the video conference. However, the business entity shall ensure that the video is clear to identify and available to all attendees.
Reported by: David Tsai / Lily Huang
Taxation
3. Amendment to Standards of Withholding Rates for Various Incomes
On 30 June 2021, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) amended the "Standards of Withholding Rates for Various Incomes". We summarize below:
(1) In case the beneficiary is not specified or not in existence yet, the transactions of land and house under Article 4-4 of the Income Tax Act by the trustee includes the re-sale house and the land thereunder and its shares and capital contribution amount; the holding period of the land and house where the withholding rate of 45%, 35% and 20% applies is revised; 20% withholding rate applies to the house built in joint construction and the house or land obtained by participating in the expediting reconstruction of urban unsafe and old buildings where the transaction is conducted within 5 years.
(2) For an individual outside the territory of the Republic of China or an individual of the Mainland Area residing and staying in the Taiwan Area for less than 183 days in a taxable year, the transactions of land and house under Article 4-4 of the Income Tax Act includes pre-sale house and the land thereunder and its shares and capital contribution amount; for a profit-seeking enterprise or a juristic person, organization, or other institution of the Mainland Area with no fixed place of business and business agent within the territory of the Republic of China, the transactions of land and house under Article 4-4 of the Income Tax Act includes the right to use the house, the pre-sale house and the land thereunder and its shares and capital contribution amount; , the holding period of the land and house where the withholding rate of 45% and 35% applies is revised.
Reported by: Stacy Lo / Henry Ku
4. Amendment to the “Guidelines for Tax Collection Authority assessing Applications of Tax Payment in Installments of Tax Payer Impacted by COVID-19”
On 30 June 2021, the MOF announced the amendment to the "Guidelines for Tax Collection Authority assessing Applications of Tax Payment in Installments of Tax Payer Impacted by COVID-19". We summarize below:
(1) The applicable period is extended to align with the implementation period of the "Special Act for Prevention, Relief and Revitalization Measures for Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens".
(2) The taxpayers who have been previously approved for postponement or installment of tax payment, may reapply for the extension to their approved postponement or installment due to the impact under the third level or higher level epidemic alert announced by the Central Epidemic Command Center. Also, the extension period for postponement or installment of tax payment may exceed the 3 years limitation period prescribed under the Guidelines for the Postponement or Instalment of Tax Payment.
Reported by: Stacy Lo / Hsiyen Hsu
Company Act
5. Ruling regarding Company Act
(1) On 12 July 2021, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) issued a ruling that where the minutes are in foreign languages, the competent authority may request for a copy of Chinese translation as necessary under Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 5 of the Regulations Governing Company Registration. Previous rulings inconsistent with the above are no longer applicable.
(2) According to the aforementioned ruling, meeting minutes of shareholders' meeting or board meeting are no longer required to be in Chinese.
Reported by: Mike Lu / Will Chen
Banking
6. Amendment to Directions for Banking Enterprises while Assisting Customers to Declare Foreign Exchange Receipts and Disbursements or Transaction
On 29 June 2021, the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) announced the amendment to Directions for Banking Enterprises while Assisting Customers to Declare Foreign Exchange Receipts and Disbursements or Transaction and its tables, which was effective on 1 July 2021. We summarize below:
(1) To remove the provision that for an inward remittance under Subparagraph 3, Paragraph 1, Article 4 of the Regulations Governing the Declaration of Foreign Exchange Receipts and Disbursements or Transactions where the declarant is entitled to settle the inward remittance, the amount is not counted toward the aggregate settlement amount of the current year.
(2) For banking enterprises processing the settlements of remittances made by a listed company (or OTC company) on behalf of his foreign employees for inward remittance of purchasing the said company’s shares or for outward remittance of selling shares or distributed cash dividends, if the settlement amount per transaction made by each foreign employee exceeds US$100,000, it may process the settlements without an approval.
(3) For the settlement declaration of the outward remittance of selling shares by the original foreign shareholders of Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation primary listed or OTC traded foreign company, the documents such as a shareholding certificate, shareholding sale certificate are required.
(4) For the declaration of outward remittances for repayment of principal and interest payment on medium- and long-term external debts, the documents to confirm and compliance matters of banking enterprises are provided according to the natures of the debt.
Reported by: Stscy Lo / Lia Wang
Land
7. Amendment to Regulations of the Land Registration
On 13 July 2020, the Ministry of Interior (MOI) announced the draft amendment to Regulations of the Land Registration, the amendment mainly provided, among others, the operation rules for online land registration application, the qualification to apply for online land registration, the required documents, payment method, the following registration procedures and the recordation of the electronic files of the registration application.
Reported by: Kang-Shen Liu / Alex Li
Corporate Governance
8. Amendment to Article 20 of Operation Directions for Establishment of Board of Directors by TWSE Listed Companies and Exercise of Powers ("Operation Directions")
On 2 July 2021, Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TWSE) announced an amendment to Article 20 of the Operation Directions to require non-financial or non-insurance related TWSE listed companies with a paid-in capital less than NT$ 2 billion to appoint a chief corporate governance officer by 30 June 2023.
Reported by: Mike Lu / Hazel Wei
SIT Funds
9. Announcement of Review and Supervisory Principles for Disclosure Items for Issuing of Securities Investment Trust Funds of Themes Related to Environmental, Social and Governance by Securities Investment Trust Enterprises
On 2 July 2021, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) announced the Review and Supervisory Principles for Disclosure Items for Issuing of Securities Investment Trust Funds of Themes Related to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) by Securities Investment Trust Enterprises (SITEs) (Review Principles). The key points are as follows:
(1) When SITEs offer and issue securities investment trust funds of ESG related themes (ESG Funds), the reporting (or application) offering plan, prospectus and other related documents must at least include the following contents: investment objectives and evaluation standards, investment strategies and approaches, performance benchmark (if any), the allocation of the percentage in investments, exclusion policies (if any), participation in stewardship, warning of risks. Also, the SITEs shall follow the requirement of periodic disclosure annually.
(2) For ESG Funds already established, if the above-mentioned contents have not been completely disclosed in prospectus, SITEs must complete the improvement within six (6) months after the announcement of the Review Principles.
(3) For securities investment trust funds already established, where their investment strategies already include words relevant to ESG policies and features, under the circumstance that such exercise does not involve change of product positioning and basic investment guidelines and strategies, if such funds plan to change the name of which to ESG Funds, SITEs can be exempted from convening a beneficiaries’ meeting, provide that it is required to apply for FSC’s prior approval for amending trust deed (with the lawyer’s opinion stating no signification impact to beneficiary’s rights and benefits,) and it is required to make the public announcement and notify the beneficiaries 30 days prior to the effective of the amended trust deed.
Reported by: Jeffrey Liu / Eliza Lee
Immigration
10. Amendments to Regulations Governing Visiting, Residency, and Permanent Residency of Aliens
On 9 July 2021, the MOI announced the amendment to the Regulations Governing Visiting, Residency, and Permanent Residency of Aliens (Regulations). We summarize below:
(1) The foreigner’ age is amended from over 20 years old to over 18 years old under the Regulations.
(2) For the foreigner’s age under 16 years old applicable for application extension of residency, the applicable age is reduced from under 16 years old to under 14 years old.
Reported by: David Tsai / Hazel Wei
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2021-07-22
