Foreign-Invested Enterprise in China

We hold a Trust or Company Service Provider licence (TC008771) and register companies in Qianhai, Guangzhou and Hengqin, Zhuhai: checking the company name, assembling the shareholder, legal representative and supervisor documents, and obtaining the business licence and the chops. We can also provide a registered address. A Shenzhen limited company with mainland shareholders is $6,000; the fee for a foreign-invested company depends on the place of registration, the shareholding structure and the scope of business, and is as quoted by us.

We register companies in Qianhai, Guangzhou and Hengqin, Zhuhai. The documents required in the three places are broadly the same; Guangzhou and Hengqin, Zhuhai also require documents for the business premises and a bank credit reference, as set out in the table above.

The documents obtained on completion in Qianhai, Guangzhou and Hengqin, Zhuhai are the same:

• Business licence, original and duplicate
• Company chop, contract chop, finance chop, invoice chop and legal representative chop
• Articles of association

• The registered address of a company in Qianhai may be attached to the address of a Qianhai business secretary free of charge, and the enterprise may operate from another location, which lowers the cost of starting up and the cost of operating.
• Eligibility for Qianhai’s 15% corporate income tax rate requires registration and substantive operations in the Qianhai Shenzhen–Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone. The principal business must be an activity in the preferential catalogue and contribute no less than 60% of the enterprise’s total revenue.
• The 15% corporate income tax rate applies to technologically advanced service enterprises that have obtained recognition. The pre-tax deduction for staff education expenditure is limited to 8% of total wages and salaries.
• For a private equity fund enterprise, Qianhai grants a settlement award according to the size of the fund.
• Qianhai operates innovative financial policies, and low-interest cross-border loans from outside the mainland are available.

• A production foreign-invested enterprise is exempt from the land use fee during the preparatory period stipulated in the contract. Export enterprises and advanced technology enterprises may have the land use fee reduced or waived.
• Land in the development zone is granted for consideration in every case, in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations of the State and the local government, and a State-owned Land Use Certificate of the People’s Republic of China is obtained for enterprises that enter the zone.

While fully implementing the State’s existing investment incentive policies, the Administrative Committee of the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone applies further incentives to foreign investment. The specific provisions are as follows.

Appropriate reduction of land prices for high-technology industries. A foreign-invested production enterprise assessed by the Zhuhai Municipal Science and Technology Commission as a high-technology industry is granted a preferential land price, set according to the four categories of international, national, provincial and municipal level and according to the different areas in which the land lies, and payment by instalments may be negotiated.

Hong Kong and Macau vehicles for an investor’s own use may apply to enter. A foreign investor whose actual investment in Zhuhai reaches a prescribed level may, during the term of its contract, apply for the driving licence and permit needed for a Hong Kong or Macau registered vehicle used by the investor to enter Zhuhai or elsewhere in Guangdong Province.

A company registered in the mainland by an overseas shareholder is foreign-invested; Hong Kong and Taiwan persons are both treated as foreign persons. Foreign investment must be dealt with according to the rules for the industry: finance, property, education, transport and mining are all industries that affect the national economic lifeline, and in some of them the foreign shareholding ratio is restricted and operation is prohibited. The Chinese party to a Sino-foreign joint venture may not be a natural person, and must contribute its capital as a domestic company.

Lease evidence or a property ownership certificate must be provided for the registered address. Subscribed contributions must be paid in accordance with the articles of association; a newly established limited liability company is generally subject to full payment within 5 years from its date of establishment.

• For a company funded by mainland persons or by a mainland company, see domestic Chinese company.
• To incorporate a limited company in Hong Kong, see Hong Kong company registration.
• For a company registered in another jurisdiction, see offshore company.