Yuli, the activities you mentioned are perfectly legal as a representative. If you are taking money directly from customers in Taiwan for work performed in Taiwan then it starts getting a little complicated. In that case I would look at eventually registering a local company to make your Taiwanese sales. For most people a branch office does not make much sense unless you are making a lot of money and need to reduce taxes by registering your foreign company in a low tax regime.
PS - don’t assume that CPAs have interpreted the law correctly, it makes no difference to them if you get in trouble or not. There are some excellent CPAs and some really poor ones, and there is some really crap advice being thrown around. Don’t worry about speaking to MOEA, they are very friendly and you can be sure about getting the correct information direct from the source.
That won’t happen - if i get to the point where in-country payments might materialize i’ll set up a local company for that - as you’ve suggested, too.
Roger… i have now all the laws at hand (in Chinese) that seem relevant, and if i have any questions i’ll confirm with the MOEA office which parts apply and how.
In general i agree with your suggestion to use government employees as a resource: whether it’s, for example, the tax office, the water department, or any of the government departments (ministry of agriculture, ministry of environment, etc.), i’ve found that there is pretty well always someone among the staff who enjoys dealing with a customer who comes with some unusual inquiry. Many of them probably do the same things day in day out, so something different feels welcome - especially when they aren’t busy (or perhaps in spite of it).
Edit: Some things i’ll only be able to comment on once i’ve done it myself. (Am getting the necessary documents at home at the end of this month.)
But there is one point i think i should mention (again): in the text of the law there is nothing written to the effect that “as a rep you will not (legally) be able to … find new clients” - that appears to be an interpretation of the rule as opposed to the rule itself, and i think it would be better to leave all interpretations out of the guide.
Will send you more information as i move through the process myself…
I apologize for all my blathering on about branch offices because according to the CLA (was just there) the requirements for a manager/主管 visa are the same as for a local company, ie. 500k initial capital for the first year and 3M in revenue for subsequent years.
Lee is completely right about the CPA, although if you plan to set up a regular company I think it’s useful getting a local CPA to do the basic setup for you (obviously they can’t do anything ARC or visa related). They charge peanuts and save you some running around.
May be i skipped that part in the forum, but do you know where i could find a text, in Chinese, describing the change of taxes and statut for the landlord that agree to put a rep office in his property? This is because I am having a real hard time to find an office… Oh I should also say that I don’t wanna pay more then 4000nt a month and i don’t want to only have a post box at a company.
Finding a physical office for $4k is hard enough, if you also want to register your company there and not cover tax for your landlord you are probably out of luck.
Your best bet is to find a “住辦”, in your price range that would mean a studio apartment aka 套房 where the landlord is willing to let you register a business. I’ve seen quite a few in the 9~12k range. I also put a wanted ad on 591.com.tw for a studio+company registration and got several hits.
Another possibility is the landlord will rent you the room and then let you register at another of his holdings.
If none of these work for you then perhaps a “virtual office” is in fact the way to go. Yes, it’s not legal to register your business at a place other than where (most of) the work will be done but there’s a reason a google search for 公司登記 brings up like 100 companies offering just that.
Thanks for the quick replies. I found a desk for 3000nt a month, however the landlord consider that if i need to register a rep. office, it will be the same charges to him as a “公司” which would cost him money each months, so he asks for an extra 2500nt to cover all the expenses.
I tried to tell him that (from what i understood) there is just about a 3% charge on the year property tax and that i would pay the difference and that except this year fee, he won’t have to pay anything. Therefore i told him that there is no need for me to pay the 2500nt extra per month as he won’t have to pay per month for my rep. office…
What I am looking for is the text in Chinese talking about the charges and tax for a rep. office to make him understand that it won’t cost him anything but the year tax…
Or may be i missuderstood ^^
Also, about the virtual adress, what will happen when the tax ofice will come to check the place? will they just close it without any notice?
First, unless it’s suspicious, the tax office will not come. In any event, anyone providing this ‘service’ know’s what’s what and will know the procedure should inspectors come. No idea what happens if you’re rejected. I seem to recall a tax official at the New Taipei City tax office telling me you’d have a time period in which to change but… who knows.
I’ve never seen a place that will give you a desk AND let you register for one fee, it’s always ~2000 for registration and more for the desk 分租. They want money to register because it’s a valuable service, there’s demand for the service, and each address can only register 4~5 businesses. Nothing to do with taxes actually, in fact he will already be paying the full business tax rate because it’s not relative to how many businesses are registered. There are only three types of property tax, according to the sources I’ve talked to (and I only talk to gov’t sources, not that they’re 100% reliable). 1. Residential+personal home benefit. 2. Residential. 3. Business. So if it’s an office, it’s almost certain the whole place is already paying business tax.
Your average residential landlord would be more concerned about the tax issue, on the other hand. It gets really messy here because a lot of landlords are playing at least one game with the tax man. Also the changes when you register a business are somewhat complex, I don’t know of any source that details the whole thing, although I only spend a day or two looking online. There’s gotta be a rental board or something that can answer this…
However, I can tell you that without a doubt some portion, >1/6, of the house tax will increase, property tax should NOT increase, rental income tax may change, utility rates may change… it’s complicated.
Just ask how many other businesses are already registered there, and what their policy is if there’s an inspection. Also, if they make you pay a year up front (seems common), make sure there’s a refund clause if you change to a new address before the year’s up. Ideally you’ll still be looking for a new place, since that’s 2500/month that could be going towards the rent on a nicer place
Where can I get my hands on the renewal forms? As my rep office is up for renewal in a couple of months and I want to get everything done nice and early and I’d rather not pay my accountant 10k to fill in a form or two for me.
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…
well i’ll just take it with the 2500 “setting business” monthly charge!