No need to stress. Hongda’s experts take care of everything of forming a representative office in China: from RO setting up, tax registration, residence permit, and one year of bookkeeping to keep you compliant.
A China representative office, or rep office for short, is the local presence of a foreign company in China.
A rep. office is not legally allowed to make profits, issue invoices, and trade, which are the main purposes of WFOE or Joint Venture. However, a rep office is still an ideal opinion for a foreign headquarter to organize business meetings, perform quality controls, promote products or services, and conduct market research in China.
Forming rep office is a relatively cost-saving solution within China that could benefit their global performance on behalf of the headquarter. Forming a rep office is also fast and straightforward, which only takes around 2 weeks from registration to running with Hongda’s help.
Thinking of opening a RO?
To open China rep. office in China, your overseas headquarter needs to provide proven records of 2 years in operation.
Already meet the criteria? Hongda's China golden experts will assist you throughout the process of forming a rep office in full compliance with local laws and regulations in any cities you may consider, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Hainan, etc. Our service package covers everything including:
As a foreign company, you may have built a close relationship with your Chinese suppliers. However, this might also cause you some trouble as representatives of both parties need to fly across countries when an in-person joint meeting or demo is to be held.
In this case, forming a rep office becomes an ideal choice if the transaction is built with the foreign headquarter directly. One of the representatives can be located in China to organize meetings, explore markets, display products, and conduct liaison activities on behalf of the foreign company at any time while enhancing your customers’ confidence in your professionality as they visit your physical office.
Furthermore, a rep office will also offer:
A rep. office is merely the representation of foreign company in China. As a consequence, it is not allowed to:
If your operation involves any activities mentioned forehead, a rep office will not be appropriate. Opening a WFOE or joint venture is a better choice for you to carry your business instead.
Read more about rep office pros and cons.
No need to put yourself into the complexity and trouble of forming a rep office. Let Hongda’s golden experts do it for you to save your time so that there is nothing to worry about. Just relax until everything is perfectly and effectively done.
Alongside formation services of your rep office, we also recommend the following services to be included in your package to help you through the hard start-up phase:
Hongda is always happy to provide any in-house legal, financial and human resource services, an optimal way to keep your rep. office compliant at any time during your operation.
Considering opening your rep. office in China? Simply hit the button below for a free consultation with Hongda to discuss your plan today.
The representative office of a foreign enterprise is an unincorporated entity engaged in liaison in China on behalf of a foreign head office. A representative office cannot engage in business activities, issue invoices, sign sales or purchase contracts, or receive income from services provided. However, it can act as a joint finalist and promoter of the head office.
Normally the naming structure of a representative office in China is: Country name of the head company registered + Name of the company + City name + Representative Office.
The chief representative is the legal representative of the Chinese representative office appointed by the foreign head office. There is no restriction on the nationality of the chief representative, who does not have to stay in China during operation.
Yes. Whether a representative office needs to pay taxes, and what taxes should be paid, depends on the nature of the industry of the foreign head office.
The representative office shall entrust a local foreign affairs service agency designated by the Chinese government to employ Chinese employees in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations. Usually, a representative office signs a service contract with a local foreign service agency. According to the service contract, the local foreign affairs service agency agrees to provide services, and the representative office pays for the service fees for hiring Chinese employees. After establishing an employment relationship, the local foreign affairs service agency will pay social insurance on a monthly basis.
Yes. Representative offices can open foreign currency accounts and RMB accounts. The foreign currency account is used to receive the appropriation from the foreign headquarters, and the RMB account is used to pay daily expenses. In actual practice, most representative offices only open RMB accounts, which can not only receive funds from foreign head offices but also pay for daily operating costs. Representative office bank accounts cannot accept funds from any other source.
The following should be included in the credit report:
The time when the company opened an account in the bank, and indicate the evaluation words such as good operation, normal business, no bad records, etc., and the amount of deposits, etc.
If the bank credit certificate is in a foreign language, a translation must be submitted and stamped by the translation company.
Jack Peng
Sound United Vice President > Asia Pacific
Sound United is the leading designer and manufacturer of consumer audio products in the US. Sound United has been using Hongda since 2013. Moving one’s operation to China is not a small task, But Hongda’s expert services helped us set up a company and deal with tax issues so we could get on with growing our business in no time at all, and that’s why we continue to use them today.
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