Foreign-invested companies in China

Fee for registering a domestic limited company:

The service covers

Registering a Shenzhen limited company (with mainland shareholders) 6,000 RMB

Registration / incorporation

Documents needed for a company with an outside company plus an individual as shareholders to set up in Qianhai

Company name (Shenzhen + trade name + industry + Limited)
Shareholder details. If a company is the shareholder, give us the Hong Kong company name; notarisation by a China-Appointed Attesting Officer is needed
Individual shareholders and the legal representative have to attend in person with the original identity card and Home Return Permit
Legal representative: identity card and Home Return Permit (clear scans of the front and the back)
Supervisor: identity card and Home Return Permit (clear scans of the front and the back)
Residential addresses of the legal representative and the supervisor
Business scope (what the business does)

What you receive

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

Incentives available to a company registered in Qianhai

A company registered in Qianhai can use a Qianhai business secretary address free of charge and can operate from another location, which cuts start-up and running costs a great deal
For a company registered in the Qianhai Free Trade Zone, if more than 70% of its main operating income falls under the Catalogue of Enterprise Income Tax Incentives, enterprise income tax is levied at the reduced rate of 15%.
Income earned by an insurance company registered in Shenzhen from international shipping insurance business provided to a company registered in Qianhai is exempt from business tax;
Income earned by a company registered in Qianhai from offshore service outsourcing business is exempt from business tax;
A modern logistics company registered in Qianhai that meets the stated conditions enjoys the pilot policy of business tax levied on the balance for logistics companies;
The standards for recognising technologically advanced service enterprises are improved. A recognised technologically advanced service enterprise pays enterprise income tax at the preferential rate of 15%, and its staff education and training costs are deductible before enterprise income tax as incurred, up to 8% of total payroll;
For a private fund company, Qianhai gives a settling-in incentive based on the size of the fund;
High-end talent from outside the mainland can be exempt from individual income tax;
Qianhai runs innovative financial policies, and low-interest cross-border lending from outside the mainland is drawing more and more companies into the Qianhai Free Trade Zone.

Registering a Shenzhen company

If a Hong Kong or Taiwan person registers a Shenzhen company, is it a foreign-invested company?
Yes. A company registered on the mainland by a shareholder from outside the mainland counts as foreign-invested.
In a Sino-foreign joint venture, can the Chinese party be an individual?
No. The Chinese party has to invest in the form of a mainland company.
Can a foreign-invested company operate in industries such as finance, property, education, transport and mining?
No. These are industries that affect the lifeblood of the national economy. In some of them the foreign shareholding ratio is restricted, and in some foreign operation is prohibited.
Are there any requirements for the registered address?
You need to provide a lease certificate or a property ownership certificate.
Does the registered capital have to be paid up?
It has to be paid up by the time set in the articles of association, usually no more than 5 years in ordinary districts and no more than 10 years in Qianhai

Guangzhou is a coastal open city of China, next to Hong Kong and Macau. It is the political, economic and cultural centre of Guangdong Province, and a commercial and trading centre for southern China that brings together manufacturing, transport, commerce, finance, information, education and talent. It sits at the regional centre of the Pearl River Delta, one of the most active and developed economic areas in China, and its economic pull and reach affect the whole country as well as Southeast Asia and the world.

Documents needed for a company with an outside company plus an individual as shareholders to set up in Qianhai

Company name (Guangzhou + trade name + industry + Limited)
Shareholder details. If a company is the shareholder, give us the Hong Kong company name; notarisation by a China-Appointed Attesting Officer is needed
Individual shareholders and the legal representative have to attend in person with the original identity card and Home Return Permit
Legal representative: identity card and Home Return Permit (clear scans of the front and the back)
Supervisor: identity card and Home Return Permit (clear scans of the front and the back)
Residential addresses of the legal representative and the supervisor
Business scope (what the business does)
Lease contract for the office premises: the property ownership certificate of the owner has to be registered and filed with the rental housing administration office of the district, street or town where the premises are, and the lease has to be signed for a term of one year or more;
Bank reference letter

What you receive

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

Incentives for wholly foreign-owned companies in Guangzhou

A production enterprise with an operating term of more than 10 years pays no enterprise income tax for the first 2 years from the year it starts making a profit, and half the enterprise income tax for the following 3 years.
A production enterprise that is a new and high technology enterprise with an operating term of more than 10 years (shown by the new and high technology enterprise certificate) is exempt from enterprise income tax for 2 years from the year it starts making a profit and pays half for the following 3 years. For the enterprise income tax levied at half rate, the company can apply, and with the approval of the finance department at the same level the whole amount may be waived. After that period ends, a company that is still an advanced technology enterprise gets a further three years of enterprise income tax at half rate; where the halved rate is below 10%, tax is levied at 10%.
A technology-intensive or knowledge-intensive project, or a production project with foreign investment of more than US$30 million and a long payback period, can be taxed at 15% enterprise income tax.
For an advanced technology enterprise, once the statutory exemption and reduction period for enterprise income tax ends, if it is confirmed to still be an advanced technology enterprise, enterprise income tax at half rate can be extended by 3 years
For an export-oriented enterprise, once the statutory exemption and reduction period for enterprise income tax ends, if the output value of its exported products that year reaches 70% of its total output value that year, enterprise income tax is levied at half the rate set by the tax law. An export-oriented enterprise already paying enterprise income tax at 15% that meets these conditions is taxed at 10%.
If a foreign investor reinvests profits received from the enterprise directly into that enterprise, or sets up a new enterprise in the development zone, with an operating term of not less than 5 years, 40% of the enterprise income tax already paid on the reinvested part is refunded. If that investment is in an export-oriented enterprise or an advanced technology enterprise with an operating term of not less than 5 years, all of the enterprise income tax already paid on the reinvested part is refunded.
A production foreign-invested enterprise (WFOE) pays no land use fee during the preparation period set in the contract. Export-oriented enterprises and advanced technology enterprises can have the land use fee reduced or waived.
Land in the development zone is granted for consideration in line with the relevant national and local government laws and regulations, and the State-owned Land Use Certificate of the People’s Republic of China is arranged for companies entering the zone

To further improve the investment environment of the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone, to run foreign-invested enterprises well, and to carry out the autonomy and the special economic policies granted to the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone by the state, the Management Committee of the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone has decided to apply further incentives to foreign investment alongside the full implementation of the state’s existing investment incentives. The rules are as follows:

Documents needed for a company with an outside company plus an individual as shareholders to set up in Qianhai

Company name (Zhuhai + trade name + industry + Limited)
Shareholder details. If a company is the shareholder, give us the Hong Kong company name; notarisation by a China-Appointed Attesting Officer is needed
Individual shareholders and the legal representative have to attend in person with the original identity card and Home Return Permit
Legal representative: identity card and Home Return Permit (clear scans of the front and the back)
Supervisor: identity card and Home Return Permit (clear scans of the front and the back)
Residential addresses of the legal representative and the supervisor
Business scope (what the business does)
Property ownership certificate and lease agreement for the business premises
Bank reference letter

What you receive

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

Incentives for foreign-invested enterprises in Zhuhai

The tax and import/export incentives available to foreign-invested enterprises in Zhuhai change with national and local policy. Tell us your industry and investment amount and we will check the rates, exemption periods and free-trade-zone arrangements that apply at the time against the official announcements. We do not publish out-of-date figures here.

Foreign-Invested Companies in China