OK, then, can you tell me this, briefly:
If i wanted to set up a branch office, what information about my business would i have to deliver? (capital? turnover? profit? taxes paid? employees? other information?)
Would i have to file a tax return in Taiwan even in the case i receive no money here? Would i have to hire, or contract with, an accountant in Taiwan?
Thanks…
Unless your business is too complex to manage yourself, I highly doubt an accountant would be required. Other than capital, which according to Llary can be as little as TW150, I don’t think you have to report anything.
I’m mostly speculating though. If you speak Chinese then I suggest a little trip to the MOEA, they are super helpful and very free during business hours. They are really really helpful there, I myself will likely be going this week. That and the EVTA/CLA, to ask if you can really get a work permit with no capital requirements.
Llary also makes a fairly good point, which is you could open a rep office and a local company as well. If your country has an onerous tax system it might be a good choice.
My business is not complex, so if there is no legal requirement to hire anybody, i should be able to do everything myself.
Concerning the other open questions: i will await the results of your research. 
But i’ll also try and see whether we have any of those offices here in Hualien (if i need language help i can find it, so even though my Mandarin is rudimentary at this stage, no worry along those lines).
About the long-term future: i don’t think that having to deal with cross-border paperwork, accounting, etc., on the long run is going to be pleasant enough for me to want to do it - better live in two worlds and open a second company on this side of the water, once the need arises. 
Opening up a local company is super easy once you already have your rep. office + ARC, any old CPA will do it for a few thousand. I wouldn’t sweat it.
You are perhaps missing a very important advantage to opening a branch or rep. office - you do not need to prove any minimum income or investment to maintain your ARC.
There are also tax advantages to running a branch office structure but you should talk about that with a tax professional.
[quote=“yuli”]If i wanted to set up a branch office, what information about my business would I have to deliver? (capital? turnover? profit? taxes paid? employees? other information?)
quote]
You have to report your Taiwan branch income to your foreign company, but not the other way around. To establish the branch office initially you really don’t need much at all, just some of the documents you would have been given when forming your foreign company (company certificate, list of shareholders etc.).
I think i got that - was talking not about my own income but date about the turnover/ business volume/ etc. of my company - that is also irrelevant (not needed for documentation) then? 
[edited]
It seemed all clear at first, but now you two have confused me. 
I read here that getting a branch office has become easier recently, but why does that mean that it has become more meaningful/ useful/ desirable to have one?
Are we on the speculation level (looking into the future)about branch office advantages, or has anybody done the branch office registration and got it to work?
To get my feet back on the ground, may i ask for some data - kindly give me a “right” or “wrong” or “don’t know” on the following assumptions:
- Opening a rep office requires less paperwork than a branch office
- Since all income that is related to my business in Japan would continue to come from Japan (not from Taiwan), there is no reason to have a branch office
- If i open a rep office i will not need to deal with tax forms in Taiwan (since there is no possibility of income in Taiwan), but if i open a branch office i will need to file with the tax office every year, even if my income from Taiwan is zero.
- Assuming that i may eventually find income in Taiwan (from other activities that are not related to my business in Japan): in that case it would be best to set up a company here for that purpose.
OK…
Thanks & thanks in advance. 
Be aware too that there have been reports that the government might check you’re really running a proper rep office, so you might think about looking for some actual Taiwanese clients. Not sure how reliable the sources are but it seems reasonable.
Of course, it is in my view not only reasonable but should be expected that the authorities may wish to see proof of legitimate activities. Thanks for mentioning it - it will perhaps deter people who shouldn’t be doing this…
In my case the entities (administrations, organisations, companies) that we call “clients” - meaning, the entities that pay - would be on the Japanese side, and my job would be to approach, and make connections with, Taiwanese entities that my clients are interested in. These activities are, of course, already documented (recorded) for accounting purposes, so i think anybody authorized to audit my activities would be able to satisfy their need for information without me having to take any extra measures.
And here are all the answers: jusregal.com/English.htm 
(and in case English does not work: jusregal.com/japan.htm )
No more confusion - a representative office it is for me
You say you’re approaching clients and making connections. That’s doing business, you’d need a branch office to be legal. The rep office work permit doesn’t allow doing business (營業).
I don’t understand what you mean, sorry - can you look at these quotes from previous posts and tell me what i can and can’t do as a representative of a company that is located in Japan and pays my salary?
Edit: One point i should perhaps add: unlike your business, mine does not sell any products but provides services (liaison and representation, planning support, gathering and structuring information, interpretation, translation, etc.).
About documenting why one wants to be in Taiwan:
[quote=“llary”] (post dated Jan 23, 2009)
[b]To sum up, a representative office is just that - an office that legally represents your foreign company. So the sort of stuff that office should be doing is e.g. visiting factories in Taiwan; signing contracts with suppliers; advertising for customers in Taiwan; liasing between head office and Taiwanese customers; opening company bank accounts etc. etc. Stuff that the office should NOT be doing is e.g. selling product to Taiwanese people or businesses; making local sales under the rep. office name with the rep. office UBN[/b[/quote]
How to do that:
[quote=“llary”] (post dated Jan 19, 2010)
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]With a rep office it depends, I got two years, some get one year.
You have to prove that you have a reason to be in Taiwan with a rep office, that’s about it, as a rep office is not a profit seeking enterprise, as in it is not allowed to make any money.
How you prove that you have a reason to be here is a different matter.[/quote]
That part is not so difficult, you just need someone with a Taiwanese business or organisation to sign something that says you will do business together for at least 3 years. Then you write a brief statement saying that you need to be in Taiwan to support that customer/business partner on behalf of your company and that is sufficient for a 3 year ARC. I understand that this part is more difficult for someone who just landed in Taiwan, but anyone who has been here for a few years should have hundreds of contacts who could help out with this.[/quote]
This was contradicted:
[quote=“Opihiman”] (post dated Jan 23, 2010)
When I formed my Rep Office, they specifically told me that Llary’s way, of providing a contract with a Taiwan company, thereby enabling/inducing the MOEA(?) to write a letter exempting him from work permit (or some such) - that this was an exception they were not entirely happy about, and were not keen to repeat. I don’t recommend going this route, though you might pull it off.
The simple solution is to draw up an employment contract through which the parent company employs the Rep, laying out his duties, responsibilities, limitations, and compensation. It is not that hard. It can amount to writing your own employment contract, given the Rep also controls the parent. You can understand, it is the only way Taiwan ensures it gets some taxes from the Rep’s activities, i.e. through personal income taxes.[/quote]
I posted this somewhere in the thread already but here it is again. The MOEA said to me in an email:
依本部92年10月29日經商字第 09202221350號函略以，公司法第386條 規定：「外國公司無意在中華民國境內設 立分公司營業… …派其代表人在中華民國 境內為業務上之法律行為時…」所稱「業 務上之法律行為」，實務上，除簽約、投 標、報價、採購外，尚包括議價。
Estimates, purchasing and contracts are all you can do. Branch office man! It’s like one extra step!
Thanks again for your reply - i didn’t quite understand you then and replied because of that… but i should not have used the word “clients” - what i mean is “prospective business partners for my Japanese clients”
Thanks also for the second reply… now i have thought a bit more about the matter and am sure that i cannot agree with your assessment at all.
That was my short reply.
(My long reply in the next post)
For the sake of adding to this resource, here is my long reply:
Here are some reasons why i think that the issue is not quite as you describe it.
- In a previous post of yours where you quoted that same e-mail you had written:
Surely "bidding, “giving estimates”, and “negotiation” applies not only to existing business partners but also to potential ones, no?
-
Making sales calls (visits) to potential clients is considered such a basic activity that anybody coming to Taiwan is permitted to do that on a visitor visa (provided that you represent an entity outside of Taiwan), and it would make no sense if this activity was not permitted under a resident visa issued to someone staffing a rep office.
-
You try to do what even the Taiwanese government has not done, namely give an exhaustive list of permitted activities (for example, where in the Chinese text does it say one is “only permitted to do xyz”?). What the government has done, is to specify what a rep office is NOT permitted to do, and we need to follow that line of reasoning to get our answers. Looking at some consultants’ websites we will find explanations along that line:
Company A:
Company B:
In conclusion, i believe that many business related activities that have not been mentioned here, including what i intend to do - to name a few: to make connections, to approach potential business partners for my clients in Japan (in other words: to find new business partners for my clients in Japan), and to advertise certain services that my clients in Japan offer - are all permitted activities (provided - but that is taken for granted - that i do not get paid for any of these activities in Taiwan).
Just giving advice based on what I’ve learned from various govt officials.
I totally don’t trust consultants, accountants, etc. You’ve done your reading here, you know they can be totally wrong.
Anyway no need for further argument. Get that certificate of incorporation legalized! The rest is a cinch.
OK.
Looks like it… (Meaning, the “how” is now pretty clear)
And thanks for comments & information.
You would do well with a little humility when doing business in Taiwan. That’s not to say that you should never try anything new or privately challenge dubious advice, but I think you are over-confident in your understanding of the law.
Your registration as a representative clearly states the limited activities you are allowed to carry out, it’s quite clear and explicit. Of course one of the nice things about doing business in Taiwan is that you can generally bend and flex the rules without causing any trouble, but you should be absolutely clear about the letter of the law in case you get up somebody’s nose one day.
That is good advice for anybody anywhere…!
Here is yet another consulting company offering basically the same advice i have found in this thread, and this is what they write:
[quote]1. What is a representative office company?
It is a special type of company which you will set up in Taiwan, where you set up a representative office of a limited company from back home.
-
How does it work?
It is only a legal representation of the foreign company in Taiwan. Nothing more and nothing less. You are not allowed to do any business in Taiwan. You only can sign documents, look for clients do quotation for your home company and so on. The business takes place between your parent company and a Taiwanese client, not the representative office and the client. Every invoice has to be filed with the parent company’s foreign address. Taxes are payed back home. A representative office only sends you to Taiwan to legally represent it. -
What is it good for?
Good for entering the market for small to medium businesses to test the conditions.
Bad for anyone trying to go around the system and legally stay in Taiwan.[/quote]
businessintaiwan.blogspot.com/20 … ffice.html
Now this, too, sounds like llary could have written it.
Anyway, thanks to llary’s extensive thread and other contributors i’m on my way - and i’m also out of here…
Thanks again to all who have taken their time to answer my questions!
(I sent Lee a draft outline for a new write-up concerning the registration procedure yesterday, for him to use it as he sees fit.)
PS: search terms someone might find useful: 外國公司代表處 (foreign company representative office); short form: 代表處 (representative office); 代表人辦事處 (representative office)
That’s not a consulting company, that’s my friend’s blog. He’s a smart guy though, I couldn’t have done it without him.
Good luck.