I’m totally tired of working for someone else in Taiwan. I want to start my own business. I’m not from Taiwan nor do I have relatives here. Luckily I won the lotto about six months ago. I’m thinking of opening up a retail store or a coffee shop.
What do I need to do to get the right permits and how much money do I need? I heard I may need to open up a Taiwan account and put hell of a lot of money in this account. Do you have any detailed advice where to go to get these permits? Do I have to partner with a Taiwan local person?
Hello businessman, I am thinking along the same lines myself. Here is how I am approaching it.
You need to work it through setting up a company first. This will give you the legal protection.
You should ask an accountant to help you and also contact a lawyer(at least one session) to make sure the accountant knows what he’s talking about. I haven’t contacted the lawyer yet but I have talked to a CPA. I also went to the Ministry of Industrial Development but they just told me to go back to the accountants as all the myriad rules for different companies are very hard to understand and anyway all the forms will be in Chinese. Supposedly you do not need a Taiwanese to be registered even for a Taiwan registered company.
SETTING UP TAIWAN REGISTERED COMPANY
He said you need NT 500,000 in the Taiwan bank account to start up limited partnership(at least 5 partners),
NTD 1,000,000 in the Taiwan bank account to start limited company with shares(at least 7 shareholders)
Presumably if you did not have this capital yourself, ask some wealthy friend to transfer this money could be transferred in there, statement printed out, and then transferred back to your friend.
SETTING UP FOREIGN INVESTED COMPANY
If as branch office - again NTD 1,000,000 in Taiwan account
If as agent, other legal entity you need to check again
I am sure there are other rules lurking out there like minimum revenues in a year or certain licenses and educational qualifications needed…
RESIDENT STATUS
To get an ARC you would then apply as general manager of the company you or as a director…
If anyone else has been through this process I also would appreciate the help. I hope above is accurate.
Could anyone point the way to competent and not too expensive accountants and lawyers in the Taipei area. Or other English reference material…
Hi, we actually use Universal Law/CPA and work with one of the owners, Anne Hu. Her contact information is listed in the ORIENTED People Directory at http://www.oriented.org/people
She speaks English fluently and got her degrees both in the U.S. and Taiwan.
Word of caution… she is top notch, very professional, knows her stuff, and expects you to be prepared when you turn to her for accounting services.
For legal support, we use Squire, Sanders & Dempsey at http://www.ssd.com They have bilingual attorneys in the Taiwan office who can help you with your legal needs.
Be sure to also peruse the ORIENTED Business Directory for more listings of professional services in Taipei. http://www.oriented.to
Hey everybody.
Thanks so much for all your replies. I really think the requirements to open a business in Taiwan is a pain in the…
Anyhow, I heard you can also find a company to do all this for you and you don’t have to put in so much money in the bank. There’s got to be an easier way to open a business here. What do you think?
Business Man