Practicality of taking part in Taiwan's "receipt lottery"
I've read about Taiwan's Uniform Invoice Lottery, and have some receipts for the lottery. Unfortunately, I forgot to give my receipts to a friend or charity before leaving Taiwan.
Is it practical to take part in the lottery? Would I need to return to Taiwan in order to claim the prize? If so, what are the chances of winning a prize that is enough to fund a return plane ticket (approximately NT$30000) to Taiwan?
I tried reading http://english.etax.nat.gov.tw/etwmain?site=en , but the only relevant links seemed to be to announcements, such as http://service.etax.nat.gov.tw/etwmain/front/ETW183W7?id=143c7ba1dc200000fcf1f86d5e576019&site=en . It says
In order to receive the prize money, a winner must fill out the form on the back of the uniform invoice and present this with his or her ID card at any post office from 2014/02/06 to 2014/05/05.
But does not explicitly say whether post offices outside Taiwan are acceptable.
Best Answer
Post offices outside Taiwan aren't acceptable. It's not a question of mailing something in, the post office bank is the one who is going to pay you the winnings.
That said, you can have a representative take the winning receipt:
A winner need not collect the prize money in person. Such person as is entrusted by a winner to collect his or her prize money should present his or her own ID card along with the winning person's ID card and the winning uniform invoice at the post office in order to receive the prize money. finance ministry
So you can mail the receipt to a trusted person, who could transfer you the winnings later.
Whether that is worth it depends on how much you win...but you can check if you're a winner just by looking at the winning numbers.
Why not just check and then make the decision about whether it's worth it, later?
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