How Taiwan's 2026 Labor & Health Insurance Deductions Work
The gap between a worker's stated monthly salary and their actual take-home pay in Taiwan comes mainly from three mandatory deductions: Labor Insurance premiums, National Health Insurance (NHI) premiums, and (if elected) voluntary Labor Pension contributions. Effective January 1, 2026 (ROC 115), the Labor Insurance ordinary-accident rate is 11.5% and the Employment Insurance rate is 1%, for a combined 12.5%, split 20% employee / 70% employer / 10% government subsidy. The NHI premium rate is 5.17%, split 30% insured person / 60% employer (insuring unit) / 10% government. Both premiums are calculated on an "insured wage" (Labor Insurance) or "insured amount" (NHI) rather than directly on actual salary β the salary is first mapped to the official insured-wage bracket table, and the bracket's fixed wage amount is used for the calculation. For example, a worker earning NT$35,000/month in 2026 falls into Labor Insurance Level 5 (NT$34,801-36,300), with an insured wage of NT$36,300; the employee's Labor Insurance share is 36,300 x 12.5% x 20% = NT$907.5 (rounded to about NT$908), and NHI (with no dependents) is 36,300 x 5.17% x 30% = NT$563. Combined, that is roughly NT$1,471 in deductions, giving a net take-home pay of about NT$33,529 before any voluntary pension contribution. NHI also has a dependent mechanism: an insured person can add a spouse or direct relatives as dependents, each dependent's premium equaling the insured person's own share, but capped at 3 dependents per insured person (a 4th or more dependent adds no further premium) β this cap exists specifically to prevent unlimited premium growth for larger families. Labor Pension has two parts: the employer must, by law, contribute 6% of the monthly contribution wage to the worker's individual pension account (an employer obligation, not deducted from salary), while the worker may voluntarily contribute an additional 0-6%, which is deducted from salary and deposited into the same personal account (still fully owned by the worker, just accessed later), and is exempt from that year's income tax up to 6%.