Taiwan Company Formation

100% foreign ownership is permitted with Taiwan company formation. A minimum of one shareholder is required for Taiwan company formation if the shareholder is a corporate body. However, if they are natural persons, a minimum of two shareholders is required.

It is easy to open global corporate bank accounts to support Taiwan company formation. Healy Consultants works with internationally recognised banks such as HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citibank to provide corporate bank account services.

In its 2006-2007 Network Readiness Index, the World Economic Forum ranks Taiwan highly as Asia's 4th and the world's 17th most prepared country to benefit from Information Communication Technologies. Taiwan is also positively ranked as the 35th freest economy in the world and the 27th freest in Asia by the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom by The Heritage Foundation. Additionally, Taiwan is positively ranked 12th by the World Economic Forum in their Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010.

In its 2009 World Competitiveness Yearbook, the Switzerland-based IMD positively ranks Taiwan as the world’s 23rd most competitive economy. The ranking takes into account factors including economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.

Forbes Tax Misery Index 2009 rated Taiwan as having the 8th lowest tax misery in the world. The index takes into account corporate income, employer social security, personal income, employee social security, wealth tax and VAT/sales. Forbes suggests the index can be used as a proxy to evaluate whether a country’s policy attracts or repels capital and talent.

A minimum capital of NT$1 million (US$31,000) is required for Taiwan company formation. However, if the company requires employment visas for expatriate workers, the paid-up capital requirement is NT$5 million (US$158,500).

The minimum number of directors required for Taiwan company formation is three.

Taiwan company formation is a relatively time consuming. According to the World Bank's Doing Business 2010 Survey, Taiwan is the world's 46th easiest place to do business.

Foreign investors interested in Taiwan company formation are required to obtain foreign investment approval from the Investment Commission at the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taipei. This makes Taiwan company formation a time-consuming exercise.

All documents related to Taiwan company formation are written in Chinese, so non-Chinese speaking foreign investors face translation costs.

A Taiwanese company is liable to pay a maximum tax of 25% on all income generated in Taiwan. Taiwan has a limited network of double taxation agreements. A Taiwanese company is obliged to register for value added tax (VAT), which is levied at a regular rate of 5%. However, a zero tax rate applies to exports.

According to the 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index. by Transparency International, Taiwan is negatively perceived as the 37th least corrupt country in the world.

For more information on Taiwan company formation, contact email@healyconsultants.com or call us at (+65) 6735 0120.

Buy the Taiwan chapter of Healy Consultants' Asia Business Set Up book, to order call +65 6735 0120 or e-mail info@healyconsultants.com