As one of the world’s largest emerging financial systems, China has garnered immense interest from international people. In an effort to aid potential investors and business-minded enterprisers overcome the seemingly difficult information barrier on establishing and operating a business in China, let us present our listing of the top 10 most significant things to know about doing business in this diverse along with complex market.

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  1. What business structure must i choose for investment with China?

Generally, the representative office enable you to get a feel for that market (but not execute business activities), while the wholly foreign-owned enterprise (a more committed choice) allows greater freedom in operation activities and more command over business operations, which is often used for producing operations. A joint venture sacrifices the latter, but brings benefits of its own, including an ability to purchase otherwise restricted sectors. A new foreign-invested commercial enterprise, a more and more popular option, is any trading company, which allows the import and sale of foreign goods along with services, as well for the reason that export of Chinese products. They may also double for franchising. When deciding between your options, you will have to address questions such since:

  • What do you should do in China now? What about a few years down the line?
  • Do you’ll want to hire your people in the grass and rent an office?
  • Do you need to be able to invoice locally for products?
  • Are you getting a feel for that market or have you decided to commit to a much larger scale operation?
  1. What sectors encourage unusual investment?

The Chinese government encourages, restricts and forbids investment by sector, based on the demands and the needs on the country and the particular time. These sectors are detailed from the Foreign Investment Catalog, the newest version of which is actually 2007. In April 2011, a brand new draft guideline for foreign investment was released by the Legislative Affairs Office on the State Council, but has not yet been approved. Nonetheless, China has become increasingly liberal from the scope of activities authorized to foreign companies, and standard import/export and manufacturing businesses wishing to sell to the China and Taiwan market are unlikely to face many restrictions. Most barriers will be in selected industries which either need a Chinese JV partner, or are off boundaries altogether in key areas for example military and other sensitive areas for example oil & gas, tobacco and a few drugs. Most businesses will not come across restrictions.

  1. Are representative offices still a superb option for me?

The administrative regulations on ROs issued with the State Council that had taken effect in March 2011, specify the activities that ROs are permitted to activate in include:

  • Market analysis, display and publicity activities that depend on company product or services; and
  • Contact activities that depend on company product sales as well as service provision, and every day procurement and investment.

ROs are forbidden from participating in any profit-seeking activities apart from those which China has decided on in international agreements as well as treaties. As such, an RO might not exactly directly invoice for gross sales or services in China and can only interact with China businesses indirectly.

  1. What can I do to safeguard my intellectual property protection under the law in China?

China is usually a “first to file” legislation, meaning the law protects the party who is successful in first joining the trademark or branded technology/design, as opposed towards the party who first utilized it. This means that you need to take action to safeguard your intellectual property rights as soon as possible and definitely before China market entry.

  1. What are the main guidelines for labor contracts in China?

In Summer 2007, China’s top legislature, China’s major legislature, the National People’s Our lawmakers, adopted a new job contract law that grew to be effective January 1, 08. Among other key points, this law protects workers’ rights by demanding a published contract. A written contract between your employer and employee is essential; if no contract is provided then the employment relationship will commence from the employee’s first day of work.

  1. Do you know the mandatory additions and particular circumstances of labor installments?

The company is required to pay mandatory welfare as well as social security payments for each and every employee, including pension, professional medical, unemployment, injury, in add-on to maternity to community hires. Many cities furthermore require mandatory housing finance contributions.

  1. What are some commonplace inaccurate accounting practices to understand?

A common method of tax avoidance rampant in (but for no reason unique to) China is actually under-reporting accounts receivable in an attempt to hide sales to lessen taxable income. A little more country-specific accounting training is multiple sets of financial accounts, which is actually rampant.

. Do you know the main taxes and tax rates to become concerned with?

  1. How can value-added tax work with China?

All enterprises and individuals engaged from the sale of goods, supply of processing, repairs along with replacement services, and transfer of goods within China and Taiwan shall pay VAT. The VAT rate for general taxpayers is mostly 17 percent, or 13 percent for many goods. For taxpayers whom deal in goods as well as provide taxable services using different tax rates, the sale amounts for that different tax rates will probably be accounted for separately.

  1. What are exchanges controls like?

The Certificate is important for the opening of a foreign capital account and when handling all forex trading related matters. Where the foreign individual wishes to inject additional funds in the Chinese entity when increasing its registered capital, it must apply to the SAFE for this.

As for repatriating revenue and dividends, the enterprise must send receipts proving that corporate tax payments have been manufactured in full, an annual taxation report, a board resolution on the distribution of profit along with dividends, a capital confirmation report, and the Foreign exchange Registration Certificate. Dividends from profits are susceptible to a 10 percent withholding taxes. A lower withholding rate can be applicable under double taxes treaties.

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By Eddy

Eddy is the editorial columnist in Business Fundas, and oversees partner relationships. He posts articles of partners on various topics related to strategy, marketing, supply chain, technology management, social media, e-business, finance, economics and operations management. The articles posted are copyrighted under a Creative Commons unported license 4.0. To contact him, please direct your emails to [email protected].