In Taiwan, to do business legally, you need a business. However, many people run the risk of being fined by running businesses under the table. You see it at almost every night market in Taiwan; when the cops come, lots of people scatter.
        Maybe you want to live in Taiwan but you want to make money in a way other than teaching English. Personally, we know a few foreigners who have done this, and to be honest, we even thought about doing it.
            We have a close friend who came to Taiwan to sell a certain fried street food. Taiwan already sells tons of this street food, and they aren’t that special. And when people see them at twice the price of a normal crappy piece of fried street food, no one is going to buy it. These same friends tried to sell stupid clothing at night markets, without success.

           Once upon a time, we also wanted to sell pancakes. Then we found out that you need a license to sell them. The police can fine you, and prevent you from coming back to Taiwan. Also, people can get a 20,000 NT reward from the police for turning you in, and you can be fined up to 70,000 NT.
        The best we have seen so far is our Taiwanese friend who constantly sells women’s clothing at a night market. She has been fined many times by the police, but it hasn’t affected her profit margins too much.
            If you want to sell stuff in Taiwan, we recommend going the legal way. Selling pancakes is not going to help you renew your ARC and stay in Taiwan (Unless you want to fly to Hong Kong every 3 months). From what we have seen, foreigners that illegally sell stuff in Taiwan always end in failure, so do yourself a favor and do things legally. 

​-Larry

Why Taiwan?
        Taiwan sits in a geographically prime location for doing business in Asia. With a well-educated Chinese speaking population, it is an ideal spot for starting a business in China or other parts of Asia. Taiwan also has a cheap and under-hired workforce, with a large amount of bilingual speakers. In addition, Taiwan contains world-class expertise in the semiconductors and silicon industries. With a strong vibrant economy, Taiwan is an ideal place for many companies to expand their business.
 
How do I get started?
First you should think about what kind of entity you need to fulfil your business needs. Most foreigners will go with one of four business types:
Subsidiary: Limited Company or Company Limited by Shares
Representative Office
Branch Office
 
What are the differences between business entities?
 
Limited Company or Company Limited by Shares: These are full companies that would not be attached to the home country office and would be able to go public on the Taiwan stock exchange and receive more outside investment. These types of entities also attract the most taxes.
 
Representative Office: A representative office would be a liaison office and would not be able to import/export or sell products to local Taiwanese people. This would be ideal for companies looking to research the Taiwan market or assist the head office overseas in overlooking Taiwan operations. A rep office does not have to pay VAT or corporate income tax, and setup is usually very fast and inexpensive. One drawback is that a rep office may have trouble hiring foreigners. Here is a nearly complete guide to rep office registration:  http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?f=88&t=43055
 
Branch Office: A branch office is a branch of the head company overseas, and is 100% owned by the foreign company. Other than this, a branch has the same power as a company in import/export and issuing invoices. A major advantage to a branch office is that profits sent back to the head office are much less than that of a company.
 
For more information on the differences between types of business entities, please follow the following links:
http://www.healyconsultants.com/taiwan-company-registration/
http://www.winklerpartners.com/?p=1710
http://www.winklerpartners.com/?p=6262
 
Now I have an entity in mind, what to do I have to do to register?
 You would need to prepare the following:
Chinese name of the company and manager
Company seal: A chop or stamp with the company name in Chinese.
Bank Account: Foreigners can open bank accounts in Taiwan. A preparatory bank account is required for entities not yet formed.
Foreign capital: You would need at least 5,000,000 NT if you are hiring foreigners, otherwise sufficient funds for operation costs.
Articles of incorporation
Notarize foreign documents: This will require you to notarize things like your business license in your home country with a notary public, and then authorizing this with the Taiwan consulate or equivalent there.
Statutory filings: Register insurance with the government. How to register with the government site: http://onestop.nat.gov.tw/oss/web/Show/engWorkFlow.do
 
How should I hire employees?
One of the most important decisions when setting up a business is who to hire for your foreign entity. You may search Taiwan on 104 https://www.104.com.tw/ or 1111 https://www.1111.com.tw/, but this may require Chinese language skills to operate. Many people go with trusted friends. I think it would be a good idea to hire someone with bilingual skills as well as experience doing business in Taiwan. Remember, if you hire foreigners, it is important that you have 5,000,000 NT starting capital and yearly income of 10,000,000 NT. The minimum salary for foreigners is 48,000 NT and the average salary for Taiwanese would be 30,000-50,000 NT depending on the job.
 
How much will setting up an entity cost me?
You could go through the registration process yourself to save money, but if you don’t know Chinese and don’t have experience, you could be between a rock and a hard spot. I would recommend finding a local CPA firm or law firm to help with this. If you are looking to save money, look for a small firm. If you are looking for quality, go with a larger firm. Here is a forum discussing this very topic: http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?f=88&t=77674
 
Is there another way?
Yes, say if you have a Taiwanese spouse, you could have your spouse set up a local company. You could also just sell food illegally on the street and get fined every once in a while (which we do not recommend). However these are topics for another time in a separate blog post.
 
For further information, please check out the following websites:
 
Starting Business in Taiwan blogs/websites:
How to start a business in Taiwan. They have a book
http://startabusinessintaiwan.tw/blog/398-taipei-city-government-reaches-out-to-foreign-entrepreneurs-about-grants-subsidies
Why Taiwan?
https://leanpub.com/startabusinessintaiwan/read
Starting a business in Taiwan (short)
https://www.angloinfo.com/how-to/taiwan/working/starting-a-business
 
If you have any questions, be sure to message us.
 
-Larry