Leaving Taiwan Checklist: What to Do 2 Months, 1 Month and 1 Week Before You Go

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A leaving Taiwan checklist by timeline: lease notice and deposit, selling furniture, NHI, taxes before departure, labor pension, bank accounts and your ARC.

Moving to Taiwan comes with a hundred guides. Leaving gets almost none, and that is where people get caught: a deposit that never comes back, a tax bill discovered at the airport, a bank account frozen with your last paycheck inside. This leaving Taiwan checklist is organized by timeline (2 months out, 1 month out, the last week, and after you land) so you do things in the order that actually matters. Most of it assumes you are leaving for good; where the answer changes if you might come back, we say so.

Departure hall at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with flight boards and travelers queuing at the departures gates

Photo: midnightbreakfastcafe via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The leaving Taiwan checklist at a glance

Two months before you leave

Give lease notice (in writing)

Read your contract first. If your lease is ending anyway, you still usually need to tell the landlord in advance; if you are leaving early, check whether the contract allows early termination at all. Under the Ministry of the Interior's standard residential lease template, when early termination is allowed, the side ending the lease must give at least one month's notice, and if they don't, the penalty is capped at one month's rent. Your deposit can't legally exceed two months' rent, and the landlord returns it when you hand the unit back, minus anything you genuinely owe.

Our pick: give notice by LINE message or email (not just verbally) as early as you know your date, and ask the landlord in the same message how and when they will return the deposit. Get the bank account details question out of the way now, because a deposit refund to an account you've already closed is a headache nobody needs. We cover the deposit walkthrough in more detail in what happens when your lease ends.

Decide what goes home, and how

Make three piles: ship, suitcase, sell or give away. Be ruthless. Most furniture bought in Taiwan is not worth shipping; a sea freight quote for a few boxes plus a desk usually costs more than buying the desk again. Electronics, documents, sentimental items and anything hard to replace go in the suitcase or a few boxes. The options (extra baggage, post office parcels, sea freight) are the same as when you moved in, just reversed, so our guide to shipping belongings to Taiwan works as a planning reference in the other direction too.

Start pet paperwork now, not later

If a dog or cat is coming with you, the destination country sets the timeline, and some countries require a rabies antibody test followed by a waiting period of several months. On the Taiwan side, the export health certificate comes from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency (APHIA), and your vet and airline need to be lined up well before the flight. If you are reading this with less than two months to go and you're heading somewhere strict (the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan), check the destination rules today.

Have a plan for your scooter or car

A vehicle registered in your name stays your problem until ownership is transferred or the plates are cancelled. Fines, fees and accident liability follow the registered owner, not whoever is riding it. Our pick: sell it to someone who will go to the Motor Vehicles Office with you and do a proper transfer (過戶) before you leave, or scrap it and deregister it. Never hand it over as a "ghost bike" with the papers still in your name.

One month before you leave

Sell or give away furniture

Start listing a month out; things don't sell fast in the last week, and desperate prices attract lowballers. Facebook expat groups and buy-and-sell groups, Carousell and word of mouth all work. Ask your landlord first: some will happily keep a good fridge, washing machine or bed for the next tenant, which saves you a lot of hassle.

Watch out for fake buyers who say they've paid and you just need to "verify" through a link; real buyers pay through the platform, and you never need to click anything to receive money.

For anything that doesn't sell, Taipei City collects bulky household waste for free by appointment: call the 1999 hotline (or your local sanitation team) to book a pickup slot and put items out where and when they tell you. Very large quantities may be charged, so ask when you book.

Book the move-out cleaning

The cleaner the apartment, the shorter the deposit conversation. A landlord who walks into a spotless unit rarely starts hunting for small deductions. Our pick is to book a professional move-out clean for the day after the movers or the furniture buyers have taken everything, so the cleaner sees empty floors and you're not cleaning around boxes. If you'd rather hand it off, we do move-out cleaning in Taipei and quote individually based on the unit.

Ask your employer for tax paperwork

You will need your withholding statements to file before you leave (more on that below). Ask HR or payroll a month ahead so they have time to prepare them, and confirm your last salary date so you know when the final payment lands.

Plan your bank exit

This one catches people out. Since early 2026, banks have been working with the National Immigration Agency to flag and temporarily freeze accounts of foreign nationals who leave Taiwan after their employment period ends or their contract is terminated. The freeze is meant to stop accounts being sold as scam "mule" accounts, and it can be lifted if you come back, but it means a Taiwan account you plan to use from abroad may simply stop working.

Our pick: unless you hold an APRC or will keep living here part-time, assume your Taiwan accounts will not be usable after you leave. Move your money out before the flight (an international transfer from your bank, or a service like Wise if your bank supports it), and keep one account open only until the deposit refund and final paycheck arrive. If you do want to keep an account, ask your branch directly what happens when your ARC ends.

The last week

File your departure tax return

If you are a tax resident (in Taiwan 183 days or more in the calendar year) and you're leaving and won't come back that year, you have to file and pay income tax before you go. The rule used by universities and the National Taxation Bureau is to file about one week before departure. Bring your passport, ARC and withholding statements to the National Taxation Bureau office. If you are leaving between January and April, you will also need last year's return done, because you won't be here in May.

Don't skip this. Unpaid tax can be reported to immigration, and in serious cases you can be stopped from leaving until it's paid. Often the result is a refund, which is another reason to file. The full process is in our guide to filing taxes in Taiwan as a foreigner.

Check-in and departures hall at Taoyuan Airport Terminal 1

Photo: Wei-Te Wong via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Sort out NHI

One important change: NHI suspension (停保), where you paused your coverage while abroad for six months or more, was abolished on 23 December 2024. New suspension applications are no longer accepted. So the old advice to "just suspend it" doesn't apply anymore.

For foreigners, NHI eligibility is tied to your residence. If you're leaving for good, your NHI ends when you lose residence status, and you withdraw (退保) through whoever enrolled you: your employer if you were insured through work, or the district office if you enrolled yourself. Settle any premiums still owed before you leave. If you were insured through your job, HR normally handles the withdrawal when your employment ends; just confirm it's done and ask whether they want the card back.

Cancel phone and internet (in the right order)

Cancel home internet first and return the modem or router; ask the provider how they want it returned. Keep your mobile number until the very end. Your Taiwan bank's one-time passwords and many app logins go to that number, so cancelling it before your money has moved can lock you out. If you're inside a contract with a discounted phone or plan, cancelling early usually means paying back part of the discount; ask the store for the exact figure before you go in.

Final utilities and the walkthrough

Electricity, water and gas are often in the landlord's name, with you paying them back. Take dated photos of the meters on your last day and agree the final amounts with the landlord in writing. Then do the walkthrough together, compare against your move-in photos, and settle the deposit (or agree in writing when and where it will be transferred).

What about your ARC?

For most people, there is no separate "cancel my ARC" step. Your residence is tied to its purpose (a job, study, a spouse), and when that purpose ends, your residence permit ends with it, usually handled through your employer's or school's process. Some universities ask students to return the card before departure, so check with your school if you're a student. You can't keep living here on an ARC whose purpose has ended, so time your departure with the end of your job or studies, not months after.

If you hold an APRC

An APRC doesn't disappear when you board the plane, but it isn't permanent no matter what. Under Article 33 of the Immigration Act, it can be revoked if you averaged less than 183 days a year in Taiwan over the most recent five years, unless the National Immigration Agency approved a special reason such as study or medical treatment. APRC holders who qualified as foreign professionals have had more generous rules. If there's any chance you'll come back, our pick is to keep the APRC and ask NIA how your specific case is counted before you leave, because getting one back is far harder than keeping it.

After you leave

Labor pension

If your employer contributed to the new Labor Pension scheme for you (this applies to APRC holders, foreign spouses, and since 1 January 2026 to foreign professionals even without an APRC), that money sits in an individual account in your name with the Bureau of Labor Insurance. The standard rule is that it's claimed from age 60. We couldn't find an official early cash-out for foreigners who leave, so don't count on one. Before you go, screenshot or download your pension account statement and note your ARC number, and keep them with your important documents so you can claim later. If you're unsure, the Ministry of Labor hotline is 1955.

Tax refunds and final payments

If you're owed a tax refund, sort out how you'll receive it when you file, since a refund to a frozen or closed account goes nowhere. The same goes for your last paycheck and the deposit. Once all three have landed and been moved out, close the last account.

Keep a "Taiwan" folder

Scan your tax filing receipt, deposit refund confirmation, vehicle transfer papers, pension statement and NHI withdrawal record into one folder. If anything resurfaces a year later (a stray bill, a pension claim, a returning-resident question), you'll have everything in one place instead of digging through old LINE chats.

The short version

If you only remember five things from this leaving Taiwan checklist: give lease notice in writing, file your tax return a week before you fly, don't rely on NHI suspension (it's gone), transfer or deregister your scooter, and move your money out before your last day, because your Taiwan bank account may be frozen once your job ends.

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