Regulations Governing the Exchange of Tax Information Concerning Agreements on Tax Matters Article 13

Where the competent authority of the ROC assists in gathering and providing information in accordance with the provision of paragraph 1 of the preceding article, the competent authority of the ROC may, depending on the case, request the relevant agency to provide the information, or request the tax collection authority or other agency authorized by the Ministry of Finance to gather the information in accordance with the following, notwithstanding the confidentiality provisions provided in paragraph 1 of Article 33 of the Act, or the financial and tax laws specified in paragraph 5 of Article 5-1 of the Act.1. The requested information is able to be obtained without performing extra investigations, the tax collection authority or other agency authorized by the Ministry of Finance shall gather it in accordance with the competent authority of the other Contracting Party’s specific request.2. The requested information is only obtainable by performing extra investigations, the tax collection authority or other agency authorized by the Ministry of Finance may conduct a necessary investigation into the relevant agency, institution, organization, enterprise, or individual, or request the presence of the subject of the investigation at the office of the tax collection authority or other agency authorized by the Ministry of Finance for enquiry and to provide relevant information.When the tax collection authority or other agency authorized by the Ministry of Finance carries out an investigation in accordance with subparagraph 2 of the preceding paragraph, the relevant agency, institution, organization, enterprise, or individual shall provide relevant information within the period specified in the notice of investigation or notice of enquiry. The aforementioned period shall not exceed 30 days from the date on which the notice of investigation or notice of enquiry is served. Where, due to special circumstances, information is not possible to provide within the specified period, the relevant agency, institution, organization, enterprise, or individual shall apply for an extension prior to the end of such period, and such period for extension shall not exceed 60 days in total.The relevant agency, institution, organization, enterprise, or individual shall provide a Chinese translation, in the case that the relevant information provided in accordance with the preceding paragraph is in a foreign language. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a summary of the Chinese translation or the foreign language document may, instead, be provided as otherwise permitted by the tax collection authority or other agency authorized by the Ministry of Finance.The tax collection authority or other agency authorized by the Ministry of Finance, having gathered the information in accordance with paragraph 1, shall draft a reply letter in English, stating the situations concerning gathering of the information as well as issues to which the other Contracting Party should pay attention, and then submit those together with the gathered information to the competent authority of the ROC. Before drafting the above-mentioned letter, the tax collection authority or other agency authorized by the Ministry of Finance shall also verify that the information gathered in accordance with paragraph 1 meets the requirements prescribed in Article 4 and does not fall under one of the situations prescribed in Articles 5 or 6.When the tax collection authority or other agency authorized by the Ministry of Finance is unable to gather the information under paragraph 1 or the information gathered under paragraph 1 is verified not to comply with the requirements in accordance with the provision of the preceding paragraph, the tax collection authority or other agency authorized by the Ministry of Finance shall draft a reply letter in English stating the reasons, and then submit it together with relevant data to the competent authority of the ROC.