Llary's (almost) Complete Guide to Rep. Office Registration

You mean renew your ARC? Rep. office registration doesn’t have to be renewed.

Strange, my accountant told me I have to renew my rep office as well…
I guess I must’ve misunderstood something, but either which way I need to renew the work permit so…

My setup does not have to be renewed but I think I should tread carefully here and suggest you contact MOEA directly because I am not a lawyer or CPA.

There is quite a lot of running around to renew a work permit + ARC so if your CPA is willing to do that on your behalf for $10k I would say that’s a fair deal. Unless you are strapped for cash I would let your CPA do it.

10K?!? Holy smokes, I’ll do it for … 7k!

Well, my work permit expires on the 27th of November and I need to have it renewed a couple of weeks before that, as otherwise I can’t re-apply for my ARC (which isn’t much of a hassle, as I already got it updated as I got a new passport).
That said, I have no idea where to start with the work permit, but looking at the rep office papers I guess that doesn’t have to be renewed.
It just feels like a waste of money if it’s something I can do myself (with some help), as although 10k might not be that much, I only have a small business so far and it’s an expense I don’t feel like I need at the moment.

As much as I’d like to say it’s really hard and to pay me to do it :smiley: the fact is it’s a cinch. Go to the CLA on Yanping north road with your documents and 500NT and you’ll be set within 5~7 working days. They’ll give you a work permit which you can then take over to the NIA to extend your ARC. If you want the list of needed docs look at my update to this post from a couple months back, it should all be there.

I agree with Llary that there seems to be no need to renew the office itself, however it might be prudent to double check with the MOEA. A quick email should suffice!


Edit: Just to plug myself for a second:

Complete Guide to Opening a Rep Office 2011 Update :popcorn:

Cool, thanks

Ok, here’s a funny one.

The tax office wants to charge business tax for the property in which I registered my rep office, but as far as I understood it, as this is a non profit type of business, there’s no tax to be paid and there’s no business being performed in that property. Anyone got any experience with this? Apparently the various tax offices don’t have a set rule for this as it’s a “grey area” according to my accountant. Is this yet another case where there’s no real regulation/law in place and it’s all up to whoever you’re dealing with? :ponder:

According to tax authorities I’ve talked to regarding this, that is correct. There are only two or three categories when it comes to property tax.

  1. Residential
  2. Non-Residential
  3. Clinics, and other special entities (not too sure but anyway none of us are one of these).

So if it ain’t a residence, it’s a business. The difference isn’t huge though, and you can apply to have as little as 1/6th of the floor space categorized as business use, if you are registering at your place of residence.

Note that there is also a special tax break on the land tax for property owners on the property where they or their direct relatives are registered. Lots of shady landlords have their kids, etc., registered in their rental properties. This tax break disappears when part of the property is classified for non residential use.

Basically, if you landlord is following the law wrt property taxes, establishing a business will only increase the tax by 1~2% on as little as 1/6 of the taxable area. Of course 80% of landlords have at least one funny thing going on, so it’s really hard to find places where you can live register a business.

Well, thanks for that, there’s no funny business going on as it’s my girlfriends parents place. It’s all just a bit odd, but it’s not that much money anyhow. It’s just strange the way the law seemingly works/doesn’t work.

It’s all a little fast and loose. Each city district has their own office to deal with property tax, so application/interpretation of the law is uneven.

Have you applied for a certain amount of floor space to be considered business-use? You’ll save some money! Doing so will almost certainly prompt a brief inspection to verify the amount of space declared is reasonable, though.

No, not as yet, but I think they told the tax people 1ping. It’s not a huge place so…

My bank is telling me I need a 稅籍編配表, which according to the tax office is a 統一編號編配通知書…
Anyone have one of these?

Did you get it with your company chop or did the tax office make you get a rep office chop?

:eh:

I think they are talking about the notification that the tax office send you (and/or your CPA) and not a chop. Did you use a CPA?

I never received any notification, but it doesn’t matter because I went to the tax office to get the form myself. We stalled when we came to the issue of the company chop. They said since it was a rep office I needed a rep office chop–my company chop, which I’ve used for every single other purpose, won’t do. :loco:

The best part was, they told me they would take my company chop if I could show them my friend’s form, which I helped him process at the exact same office about 4 months ago, which has his company chop on it. I think I should just go back tomorrow and try again haha.

No accountant. Don’t trust 'em. Haha

I go through about 10 chops with every company… the latest change was NHI who decided they need my personal chop with a rectangular frame (they changed their minds about it 3 times in the past 10 years). I don’t even bother arguing now, just go get a new chop like a good boy :slight_smile:

Haha you don’t say. What’s the point of a chop when you can just make more whenever one is demanded of you? Earlier in the year a friend of mine needed to transfer her phone from her mom’s name to hers. When they wouldn’t accept a copy of the mom’s ID card, which was all they said they needed originally, the person at the desk suggested going down the street to cut a chop for her mom, which would suffice… 暈 And last year my roommate transferred his scooter to someone, but couldn’t because he didn’t have the person’s chop. So he went and cut one, problem solved. :discodance:

Anyway thanks again for your invaluable help, Llary…

Forumosa apparently considers me too offensive so I am not really interested in giving free advice here any more… sorry.

That’s a real shame. Your seminal post has been the number one factor in my career in Taiwan!

That said, I’m fairly confident that my updated post now has all the information one would need to get from zero to ARC with minimal hassle. Read it here:

Is Gibraltar a viable place to incorporate a limited company prior to setting up a rep office ? I am leaning towards incorporating there due to personal circumstances - the thing is I’m afraid it may look weird compared to a place like Hong Kong for example. Maybe what matters most is that you have a LLC company, and not where it was registered ? Thanks

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