How to Offboard a Remote Employee in Taiwan: The Access and Compliance Checklist

Offboarding a remote employee in Taiwan runs on two parallel tracks that most startups handle in sequence — and that gap is where things break. Track one: labor compliance — notice periods, severance, final pay timing, deregistering from Labor Insurance and National Health Insurance. Track two: access revocation — revoking Slack, Notion, GitHub, Figma, and every tool they touched. Both tracks have hard legal and security deadlines. Miss one and you're facing an NHI penalty, or an ex-employee still logged into your Vercel production environment three months later.

Why This Matters for Remote Startups in Taiwan

Remote offboarding has no natural ceremony — no desk to clear, no key to hand back. That absence makes it easy to delay: paperwork next week, access revocation later. Taiwan's Labor Standards Act has hard windows: final wages within 7 days of termination (Article 22), Labor Insurance deregistration within 2 days, NHI deregistration within 3 working days. On the access side, a Reco AI 2026 analysis found 40% of departing employees retain access to at least one business application after departure. Both risks activate on the last day, not when you get around to the admin.

Track 1 — Taiwan Labor Compliance

Notice Periods (Article 16, Labor Standards Act)

When the employer initiates termination, the minimum notice period depends on tenure:

• 3 months to 1 year of service: 10 days notice
• 1 to 3 years of service: 20 days notice
• 3+ years of service: 30 days notice

If you skip the notice period, you owe wages covering the full notice window. For a remote employee, this matters because you may want to cut access on the announcement day — but legally the employment runs through the notice period unless you pay in lieu. Most startups pay in lieu and cut access the same day. That's allowed; just make sure the payment is processed first.

Severance Pay (Article 17 / Labor Pension Act)

Taiwan operates two severance systems depending on when the employee joined:

• Old system (pre-July 1, 2005 service years): 1 month average wages per full year of service, no cap.
• New system (post-July 1, 2005 service years): 0.5 months average wages per full year, capped at 6 months total.

Most employees hired today fall entirely under the new system. Service years under each system are calculated separately and paid together. Severance is due within 30 days of termination under the Labor Standards Act. For remote employees, wire the payment on or before the last working day.

Final Paycheck (Article 22)

The employer must pay any outstanding wages — including the final pay cycle, unused leave payout if applicable, and any owed bonuses — within 7 days of the termination date. "We'll sort it out next month's payroll run" is not compliant. Set a reminder to process this within 48 hours of the last day.

Labor Insurance Deregistration (勞工保險)

File the withdrawal notice with the Bureau of Labor Insurance within 2 days of the termination date. Missing this window means the employer continues paying premiums for an employee who no longer works there — and creates reconciliation headaches on both sides.

National Health Insurance Exit (全民健保)

Deregister the employee from NHI within 3 working days. After deregistration, the employee can continue coverage by enrolling as a voluntary NHI participant or joining through a spouse's or parent's household. Remind them of this — it's a common confusion for departing employees, especially foreign nationals who assume coverage lapses automatically.

Service Certificate (服務證明書)

Under Article 19 of the Labor Standards Act, an employer must issue a service certificate (employment verification letter) within 7 days of the employee's request. Prepare a template in advance. Remote employees often need this quickly to apply for new jobs or visas.

Track 2 — Tool Access Revocation

The order matters. Start with the accounts that can reset everything else, then work outward.

Priority 1 — Email and Identity

Suspend or reset the corporate email account first (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365). Email is the recovery key for every other account — if you leave it active, the ex-employee can request password resets on any SaaS tool tied to that address. Revoke this on the last day, within the hour of the final conversation.

If you use an SSO provider (Okta, Google SSO, Microsoft Entra), disable the SSO account immediately after email. This will propagate access removal to any SSO-connected apps automatically — but only those apps. Non-SSO tools remain live and require manual revocation.

Priority 2 — SSO-Connected Apps

Check your SSO dashboard to confirm which apps were actually connected versus which ones employees accessed independently. The list in your SSO panel is almost always shorter than the real list.

Priority 3 — Non-SSO Tools (manual revocation required)

Go through this list for every remote departure, regardless of seniority:

For a deeper methodology on running this audit systematically, see our guide on how to run a 'who has access' audit at your startup.

OAuth Tokens and API Keys

Employees often create personal OAuth connections and API tokens for automations they set up — a Zapier zap pulling from your CRM, a Notion API integration, a GitHub Action using their personal token. When you remove the user, those automated flows silently fail — or worse, keep running under cached credentials. Check for:

• Personal access tokens in GitHub, GitLab, Vercel, or AWS tied to their account
• Zapier / Make connections authorized under their login
• Any "built-in my account" integrations in tools they owned

Shared Credentials

If your team used shared logins for any tool (a common shortcut in early-stage startups), rotate those passwords immediately after the offboarding conversation. There is no technical revocation for a password stored in someone's browser.

The Sequencing Problem Remote Teams Hit

The most common failure mode: the HR-side process (calculating severance, drafting the termination letter, coordinating final payroll) takes a week or more. Meanwhile, the access revocation waits — because someone assumes IT and HR are in sync. They aren't.

The fix is a simultaneous trigger. Before the offboarding conversation:

1. Have the termination letter ready and severance calculated
2. Have the access revocation checklist open in a second tab
3. Send the letter → have the conversation → revoke access within the hour

This sequence prevents the compliance delay from keeping access alive. It also prevents the opposite mistake: revoking access before the legal conversation happens, which leaves you on shaky ground if the employee disputes the termination.

The core problem — that HR tools handle paperwork while IT tools handle access, and neither talks to the other — is documented in the offboarding gap between HR software and IT systems. For remote Taiwan teams, that gap is widened by time zones, async communication, and the absence of a physical handover.

What Gets Overlooked Most

Ghost accounts in dormant tools. The employee last used the staging analytics dashboard six months ago. It's not on anyone's list. Their login still works.

Scheduled jobs running on personal credentials. A cron job, a Zapier workflow, or a GitHub Action using their personal access token will fail silently when their account is removed — or, if the token was never tied to the account properly, keep running. Audit automation configs before removing the user.

Cloud storage residue. Notion workspace guest access, Google Drive folders shared directly (not through the org), Dropbox shared links — these don't get caught by removing the user from the main workspace. Check document-level sharing settings on any folders the employee owned or managed.

Device access for remote employees. Unlike in-office departures, there's no laptop to collect on the day. Set up a courier arrangement before the offboarding conversation. Coordinate MDM wipe (if applicable) on the day the device is returned, not the day access is revoked.

For ongoing protection beyond individual offboarding events, automated access revocation turns the checklist into a triggered workflow so nothing depends on human memory.

FAQ

Do I have to pay severance if the employee resigns (not terminated)?

No. Under Taiwan's Labor Standards Act, severance pay obligations under Article 17 apply when the employer initiates termination under Articles 11 or 13. If the employee voluntarily resigns, no statutory severance is required — though any contractual severance provisions still apply. Note that voluntary resignation does trigger the same Labor Insurance and NHI deregistration deadlines.

Can I revoke access before the official last day?

Yes, if you pay wages in lieu of notice. If you give the required notice period (10/20/30 days per tenure) and pay them through that period, you are legally entitled to end active work — including system access — at any point during or immediately at the start of that notice window. Confirm this in the termination letter to avoid disputes.

What happens to the employee's NHI coverage after deregistration?

After you deregister them from group NHI enrollment, they have options: enroll as a voluntary NHI participant (支付自行繳納保費), join under a spouse's or parent's household, or enroll through a new employer. Coverage doesn't lapse immediately — there's typically a short grace period — but they need to take action. Tell them explicitly during the offboarding conversation. Foreign nationals in particular often don't know the process.

Does a non-compete clause prevent them from joining a competitor?

Taiwan enforces non-compete agreements, but with conditions: the clause must protect a legitimate business interest, limit the restriction to 2 years or less, cover a reasonable geographic scope, and compensate the employee during the restricted period (typically 50% of prior wages or more). Agreements that don't meet all four conditions may not hold up in court. If your contracts include non-competes, confirm they meet these requirements before citing them.

What if the employee is a foreign national on a work permit?

If the employee holds an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) tied to their work permit, the permit is tied to the employment. Termination may trigger a visa status change — the employee typically has a short window (varies by visa type) to find new sponsorship or change visa status before their ARC needs updating. Notify them of this during the offboarding conversation. It's not your legal obligation to manage their immigration status, but informing them avoids unnecessary disputes.

Start With a System, Not a Checklist

A checklist works once. It's the next offboarding — six months from now, when you're busy, when the person leaving isn't expected — where things slip. Optserv manages the full employee lifecycle from first offer letter to last day: contracts, tool access tied to role, and a triggered offboarding workflow that handles both tracks simultaneously. When someone's last day hits, access is revoked across every connected tool without a manual search through Slack channels and admin panels. See how it works at app.optserv.ai.

Sources

• Taiwan Labor Standards Act (English text), Ministry of Justice ROC
• Termination of Employment Contracts in Taiwan — L&E Global
• Severance Pay Rules in Taiwan — Playroll
• Reco AI: 2026 SaaS Access Risk Report
• Ministry of Labor ROC — Severance Pay Guidance