Advocates of free enterprise often point to Taiwan as a place that should be emulated. Taxes are low and businesses aren’t overburdened by regulations. Because barriers to entry are low, many Taiwanese try their hand at entrepreneurial activity, be it starting a factory, opening a restaurant, or selling goods or services online. This is one of the reasons why Taiwan’s urban areas are so lively and why you can depend on getting something tasty to eat whatever the time or day.
But — and this is probably true in every country — some of these go-getters aren’t keen on sharing their profits with the taxman. For its part, Taiwan’s government has come up with some imaginative strategies to combat tax evasion. And there’s one which almost every visitor encounters: the ‘receipt lottery’.
The lottery encourages ordinary citizens to buy from shops which pay their taxes, and to incentivises them to demand receipts so there’s a paper trail for every transaction. Each time you buy a cup of coffee at 7-Eleven or a bottle of water at Family Mart, you should be given a standardized receipt that bears the name of the business, the time and date of the purchase, and how much money was spent. (Environmentally-minded readers will be glad to know that the government is encouraging businesses to switch from physical receipts printed on thermal paper to e-receipts.)
Of great importance is the unique eight-digit number on each receipt, because it might just win you NT$2 million (as of December 2024, that’s US$61,286 or GBP48,726). There are thousands of smaller prizes, from NT$200,000 down to NT$200. The eight-digit number is prefixed by a pair of letters, but these aren’t relevant to the lottery.
If the last three numbers on your receipt match the last three on one of the announced winning numbers, you’re entitled to NT$200. If you have the last four, you can claim NT$1,000. Five matching digits and you stand to gain NT$4,000, and so on. It doesn’t matter if you spent a few coins on a chocolate bar or US$1,000 on camera equipment, but tax at 20 percent must be paid on larger prizes.
Unfortunately it’s not easy for tourists to take advantage of the receipts they’re likely to accumulate during a private guided tour of Taiwan. For a start, winning numbers are announced every two months and they apply to the period that ended a month previously. In other words, the numbers for January and February 2025 will come out at the start of March 2025. If you’re here for the upcoming Lantern Festival, you’ll probably be long gone by then. Secondly, redeeming a winning receipt usually means a trip to the bank or post office.
Because your chances of winning aren’t that great and many people feel that the small prizes don’t justify the hassle, we suggest you do what plenty of Taiwanese do: Place all your receipts in one of the transparent charity donation boxes you’ll see by the cashier in many shops. These charities have volunteers who manually check all the receipts they collect, with the winnings going to support the charity’s good works. If you’ve enjoyed your time in Taiwan, it’s a way of giving back.