Taiwan shares in a US estate: the Taiwan value, Form 706 and the foreign death tax credit

Form 706 is due nine months after death, and its stock schedule needs a value for every share the decedent owned (Instructions for Form 706). For a US citizen who lived in Taipei, that list can include shares of a Taiwan-headquartered listed company. Those same shares will also appear on a Taiwan estate tax return, priced by a different rule, assessed on a different timetable and paid in New Taiwan dollars. Claiming the US credit for the Taiwan tax means lining the two files up.

What goes on Form 706

A listed share, under 26 CFR 20.2031-2(b), is worth the mean between the highest and lowest quoted selling prices on the valuation date. When nothing traded that day but there were sales within a reasonable period before and after it, the regulation takes a weighted average of the high-low means on the nearest trading day on each side.

Which date counts is itself a choice. Section 2032 lets the executor value the whole gross estate six months after death, or on the date of sale or distribution for property disposed of sooner. According to the Form 706 instructions, the election is allowed only if it lowers both the gross estate and the tax, it cannot be applied to part of the property, and once made it cannot be revoked. A citizen's gross estate includes property outside the United States, and for 2026 deaths the basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000.

The figure Taiwan uses

Taiwan offers no such choice. Article 10 of the Estate and Gift Taxes Act values the estate at market value at the time of death, and Article 28 of the Enforcement Rules turns that into a price: the closing price on the date succession opens for shares listed on the stock exchange (上市) or traded over the counter (上櫃), and that day's weighted average price for emerging-market (興櫃) shares. Whatever the stock does during the six months an executor might wait under § 2032 stays out of the Taiwan number.

Article 28 does mention a one-month average, and it is easy to read too much into it. The average sits inside the proviso for a day with no trading price. It replaces the last close before death only if that close moved drastically, a word the rules never quantify. Absent such a swing, a death on a Saturday is valued at the last close before death. For the same weekend, the US regulation looks at trading days on both sides of the date; Taiwan looks only backward.

Shares not listed anywhere follow a separate net-asset computation under Article 29 of the Enforcement Rules. For listed shares, the practical result is two numbers in two currencies, each backed by its own trading record: a closing price in New Taiwan dollars for Taiwan, and a high-low mean or an alternate-date value for Form 706.

When the Taiwan tax becomes a paid amount

Nine months is the US deadline. Taiwan's clock starts on the same day but runs in three stages: a return within six months from the day after death (Article 23), an assessment within two months after the bureau receives it, longer if a superior authority approves (Article 29), and payment within two months from the day after the notice is served, with one two-month extension available on application (Article 30, paragraph 1). A return filed at the six-month mark can therefore push the Taiwan payment past the US due date. The Form 706 instructions allow for that: the credit may be estimated on the return, but it is not finally allowed until the foreign tax has been paid and Form 706-CE is filed. Form 4768 gives an automatic six-month extension of time to file Form 706.

Who signs the Taiwan return? The heirs and legatees are the persons liable, up to the value of the estate, but where a will names an executor (遺囑執行人), the executor may file, pay and seek re-examination on their behalf (Article 6, paragraphs 1 and 4). If the decedent was not an ROC national, the return goes to the tax authority where the central government sits, the Taipei National Taxation Bureau (Article 23, paragraph 2). Until the tax is paid, the shares stay in the decedent's name: the estate cannot be partitioned, legacies cannot be delivered and transfers cannot be registered, apart from the exceptions in Article 41 (Article 8).

How much Taiwan collects follows the 2026 schedule: an exemption of NT$13.33 million, then 10% of the net taxable estate up to NT$56.21 million, 15% up to NT$112.42 million and 20% above that (Ministry of Finance 2026 amounts table). The spouse, descendant and other deductions in Article 17(1), items 1 to 7, are unavailable when the decedent was not an ROC national (Article 17, paragraph 2).

The credit and the Taiwan certificate

Section 2014 credits estate, inheritance, legacy or succession taxes actually paid to a foreign country on property situated there and included in the gross estate. The instructions limit the credit to decedents who were US citizens or residents and cap it at the federal estate tax attributable to the property. Each Taiwan payment is converted to dollars at the exchange rate in effect when it was made, and the credit has to be claimed within the later of four years after the return is filed or the other dates the instructions list. Taiwan does not appear on the IRS list of estate and gift tax treaties, so the statute is the only route.

Taiwan's proof of payment is the tax payment certificate (稅款繳清證明書), which the bureau issues once the tax, any fines, late-payment surcharges and interest are fully paid (Article 41). Form 706-CE asks a foreign tax official to certify the payment. Nothing in the Taiwan statute addresses signing a foreign form. If a foreign government refuses to certify Form 706-CE, the Form 706 instructions say to file it directly with the IRS as the form instructs.

Situs needs settling too. For the credit, the instructions decide where property is situated by the same principles that place a nonresident alien's property in the United States. Under those principles the place of incorporation generally decides, not the location of the certificates: stock of a corporation organized under US law is US property, and other corporate stock is not (Instructions for Form 706-NA). Taiwan's own test is the issuing company's principal office. For a company both organized and headquartered in Taiwan, the two tests agree. One organized in one country and run from another may be placed differently on the two returns.

Why Taiwan taxes these shares at all

Taiwan reaches these shares because of where the company is, not where the decedent kept the account. A person who was not an ROC national is taxed only on property in Taiwan (Article 1, paragraph 2), and shares are located at the issuing company's principal office (Article 9, paragraph 1, item 8). Shares of US companies generally fall outside the Taiwan return. Someone who voluntarily gave up ROC nationality within two years before death is taxed as a national (Article 3-1).

Dual nationals are a separate case. An ROC national ordinarily residing in Taiwan is taxed on worldwide property under Article 1, paragraph 1, and Article 11 then offers Taiwan's own credit for foreign estate tax, capped at the extra Taiwan tax the foreign property causes. For what else counts as Taiwan property and how filing from abroad works, see when someone dies holding assets in Taiwan.

Paying the Taiwan tax with the shares

Those same shares can also settle the Taiwan bill. Where the tax is at least NT$300,000 and paying it all in cash at once is genuinely difficult, the persons liable may apply within the payment period to cover the cash shortfall with a single delivery of taxable property located in Taiwan, or of readily saleable and storable property they own (Article 30, paragraph 4). If the heirs still hold the shares in common, paragraph 7 lets the application go forward with the consent of a majority of the heirs whose inheritance shares also add up to more than half, or of heirs whose shares together exceed two-thirds.

Delivered shares count at the value used in the assessment (Enforcement Rules Article 46). If they trade below their date-of-death value on the application date, the tax they can cover is limited to their proportion of the total taxable property (Article 30, paragraph 4).

Working with a lawyer in Taipei

An executor in the United States usually handles the Taiwan side through counsel in Taipei. A Taiwan lawyer can prepare and file the return with the Taipei National Taxation Bureau, assemble the closing-price record for the date of death and the days before it, and argue the valuation where a non-trading day or a sharp price move is involved. The same lawyer can follow the assessment through payment or an in-kind application, file for re-examination if the assessment is wrong, and obtain the tax payment certificate the US credit depends on. Form 706, the § 2032 election and the Schedule P computation stay with the estate's US attorney or CPA. Hovering International Law Firm (昊鼎國際法律事務所) has an English-speaking lawyer in Taipei: wei@hoveringlaw.com.tw. Taipei office: 7F-2, No. 35, Sec. 1, Chengde Rd., Datong Dist., Taipei 103 (103臺北市大同區承德路一段35號7樓之2). More on inheritance work is on the family and inheritance page.

The share price is fixed on the day of death. The US credit, though, waits for proof that Taiwan was paid, and that certificate is what usually sets the pace of the file.

Sources

Checked October 26, 2026.

• Estate and Gift Taxes Act (遺產及贈與稅法): Article 1, Article 3-1, Article 6, Article 8, Article 9, Article 10, Article 11, Article 17, Article 23, Article 29, Article 30, Article 41
• Enforcement Rules of the Estate and Gift Taxes Act: Article 28, Article 29, Article 46
• Ministry of Finance, amounts applicable to successions and gifts in 2026 (announced November 27, 2025)
• 26 CFR 20.2031-2, valuation of stocks and bonds (eCFR)
• IRS: Instructions for Form 706 (Part III, line 1; Schedule P)
• IRS: Instructions for Form 706-NA
• 26 U.S.C. § 2014, credit for foreign death taxes (Cornell LII)
• 26 U.S.C. § 2032, alternate valuation (Cornell LII)
• IRS: Estate and gift tax treaties (international)