Selling Homemade Mooncakes? You May Still Need to Register for Tax

A home kitchen, no shop sign and no employees do not automatically exempt mooncake sellers from tax registration in Taiwan. The Kaohsiung National Taxation Bureau says the key issue is whether a person continuously sells goods to the public and collects payment.

With the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, many people are taking orders for homemade mooncakes, pastries and handmade cookies through social media, group purchases or repeat customers. The bureau says those sales qualify as the sale of goods under Taiwan’s Value-Added and Non-Value-Added Business Tax Act.

People who plan to operate this way must register with their local national tax office before starting business. Whether they have a storefront, display a sign or hire workers is not the main test. Continuous external sales can be enough for the seller to be classified as a business operator.

The bureau gave a monthly sales example of NT$120,000. Because that amount is below the NT$200,000 threshold for using uniform invoices, the seller would be treated as a small-scale business. The tax office would assess sales quarterly and levy business tax at 1%.

If monthly sales rise to NT$250,000, the seller would exceed the threshold and could no longer use the small-scale system. The business would have to issue uniform invoices and file and pay tax every two months, within 15 days of the following period. Operating without registration can lead to a fine of NT$3,000 to NT$30,000, and repeated penalties if the seller fails to register by the required deadline.