How to Set Up a Foreign Company in Taiwan (Step by Step, 2026)

TL;DR — Taiwan company setup in one paragraph

Setting up a foreign-owned company in Taiwan is a six-step regulated process: name pre-check, FIA (Foreign Investment Approval) filing, capital remittance, CPA capital verification, MOEA company registration, and tax registration — followed by bank account opening and (in parallel) work permit application. Realistic end-to-end timing is 10–12 weeks from kick-off to a live, fully banked entity with founder work permit in hand. The slowest gates are foreign-jurisdiction document notarization (2–4 weeks before anything reaches Taiwan) and bank KYC on foreign directors (2–6 weeks after registration). The fastest path is one where strategy, capital level, and business scope are fixed before the FIA is filed — because every change after submission means re-notarization in the parent jurisdiction.

This guide is the operational checklist ROLL ON. uses on every foreign-company setup, with the gotchas that don't appear on government websites.

What you are actually setting up

Before any paperwork starts, decide which of three legal vehicles you are setting up. The decision is irreversible cheaply.

• Subsidiary (子公司, 100% foreign-invested limited company) — a separate Taiwan legal person. Default choice for foreign companies that will hire local staff, generate revenue in Taiwan, or want IP isolation from the parent. Practical paid-in capital floor NT$500K–2M depending on hiring plan and bank.
• Branch Office (分公司) — a legal extension of the foreign parent. Faster setup, no minimum capital floor, but parent is directly liable. Common for foreign banks, airlines, professional service firms.
• Representative Office (代表人辦事處) — a non-revenue liaison presence. Cannot invoice, cannot sell. Used only for pre-commit validation or supplier coordination.

For a deeper comparison see the Taiwan Market Entry Guide. This setup guide assumes a Subsidiary, because Subsidiaries are 80%+ of foreign-company setups; the Branch flow is structurally similar but skips the shareholder structure step.

Step 1 — Pre-approval: name check and FIA filing

The FIA (Foreign Investment Approval) is the regulatory gate before company registration. It is administered by the Investment Review authority under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Name pre-check

Submit two to three Chinese-language company name candidates to MOEA. The name must comply with naming rules (no conflict with existing company, no restricted words, must include legal-form suffix). Typical response time 3–5 business days.

Document checklist (FIA filing)

• Parent company certificate of incorporation / good standing, notarized and consularized in the parent jurisdiction
• Parent company board resolution explicitly authorizing the Taiwan entity, the capital amount, and the authorized representative — notarized and consularized
• Identity documents for each director and supervisor (passport copies), notarized
• Authorized representative power of attorney, notarized and consularized
• Proposed articles of incorporation for the Taiwan entity (Chinese)
• Business scope description in Chinese, mapped to MOEA's standard business code list
• Source-of-funds evidence (parent bank statement or equivalent)

FIA filing and approval

Submit the package to the Investment Review authority. Standard processing for clean filings in unrestricted industries is approximately 2–4 weeks. Restricted industries (telecoms, broadcasting, certain logistics) or PRC-origin capital cases run materially longer due to inter-agency review.

The FIA approval letter is the authorization to wire foreign capital into a designated capital-injection bank account. Without this letter, the next steps cannot begin.

Common FIA rejection reasons

1. Notarization tier errors — documents notarized by a notary lacking the required authority, or missing the consular / apostille seal for use in Taiwan.
2. Board resolution too generic — resolutions that authorize "Asia expansion" rather than naming the Taiwan entity specifically.
3. Business scope wording triggers restricted-industry flags — scope drafted in English then poorly translated can read as telecoms / media / financial when the underlying business is not.
4. PRC-capital classification errors — failing to disclose PRC government ownership share at the parent level; misfiling Type 1 / 2 / 3 classification.
5. Inconsistent capital figure across documents — the figure in the board resolution, FIA application, and capital injection plan must match exactly.

Each rejection typically adds 2–6 weeks of rework because most remediation requires re-notarization in the parent jurisdiction.

Step 2 — Capital remittance and CPA verification

Once FIA is approved, the parent wires the approved capital amount into a Taiwan bank's capital-injection escrow account designated in the FIA approval. The bank issues a capital remittance certificate.

A Taiwan-licensed CPA then performs capital verification — confirming the funds are in the account, matching the FIA-approved amount, and issuing the formal capital verification report (資本額查核報告) required for company registration. Typical timeline 1–2 weeks assuming the CPA is engaged in advance.

The capital-injection account is not the company's operating bank account. After registration, capital can be moved out of the injection account into the company's operating account.

Step 3 — Company registration (MOEA)

With FIA approval and the CPA capital verification report in hand, file the company registration with MOEA's Department of Commerce. The package includes the articles of incorporation, director and supervisor appointments, registered address, and business scope.

Typical processing 1–2 weeks for standard cases. The company is legally formed on the registration date; a corporate registration certificate (公司登記證明) is issued.

At this point the company has a tax ID number (統一編號), a registered address, and a registered representative — but no operating bank account, no tax registration with the National Taxation Bureau, no labor insurance, and no work permits.

Step 4 — Tax registration and statutory books

Within a defined window after company registration (commonly within one week), register with the National Taxation Bureau (NTA). This produces:

• Business tax (VAT-equivalent) registration at 5%
• Profit-seeking enterprise income tax registration at 20% on net income (5% surtax on undistributed earnings)
• Withholding tax registration for payments to non-residents (21% baseline on dividends, treaty-reducible)
• Authorization to issue uniform invoices (統一發票) — required to recognize revenue under Taiwan tax rules

Statutory books — general ledger, sub-ledgers, fixed asset register, employee roster — must be maintained from this point. Most foreign-owned entities outsource bookkeeping to a CPA firm; the cost is materially lower than the equivalent in Tokyo or Singapore.

Step 5 — Bank account opening (the hidden bottleneck)

Bank account opening is the step every founder under-budgets. Realistic timing is 2–6 weeks after company registration. The slow gates are:

1. KYC on foreign directors — Taiwan banks under regulatory pressure on AML have tightened diligence on foreign-passport directors. In-person interviews are common, especially at the major commercial banks. Source-of-funds documentation at the director level (not just the company) may be requested.
2. Beneficial ownership declarations — corporate structures with multiple holding layers above the Taiwan entity face questionnaires that must be filled correctly in one pass; revisions reset the queue.
3. Document translations — parent-jurisdiction documents not in Chinese or English must be translated and notarized.

Bank choice in practice

Some Taiwan banks have explicit foreign-business desks with bilingual relationship managers; others do not. Bank choice should be made early because the FIA-designated capital-injection account locks the relationship for at least the early phase.

A pre-aligned document package — KYC questionnaire pre-filled, source-of-funds evidence pre-translated, directors briefed on likely interview questions — compresses the typical 4–6 week timeline to roughly 2 weeks.

Step 6 — Work permits and founder residency

Three routes for foreign individuals who will work in or for the Taiwan entity.

Employment Gold Card (就業金卡)

Taiwan's flagship instrument: integrated work permit + resident visa + re-entry permit + Alien Resident Certificate, valid 1–3 years. Eligibility runs through 8 categories: science & technology, economy, education, culture & arts, sports, finance, law, architecture. Suitable for foreign founders, senior hires, and technical leads who meet at least one category's criteria (typical thresholds: senior salary history, professional credentials, or specific recognized achievements). Gold Card holders are not tied to a sponsor employer, which is operationally a major flexibility advantage.

Entrepreneur Visa (創業家簽證)

For foreign founders who do not yet meet Gold Card criteria but are starting a Taiwan venture. Requires either capital deployment thresholds, an approved business plan tied to specific innovation programs, or prior funding. Typical validity 1 year, renewable.

Employer-sponsored work permit (general route)

The standard route for foreign employees of a Taiwan-registered company. Requires the Taiwan entity to be the sponsor, salary above the statutory minimum for foreign specialist hires, and qualifying education or experience. Typical processing 3–4 weeks. Suitable for the company's foreign hires once the entity is live.

Realistic end-to-end timeline

The table below assumes a clean filing in an unrestricted industry, with parent-jurisdiction documents notarized in parallel with strategy work.

Two specific accelerants compress this: (a) running parent-jurisdiction notarization in parallel with the strategy phase rather than waiting for it to finish; and (b) pre-aligning bank KYC documents before company registration so the bank application is filed the day registration completes.

After setup: ongoing compliance calendar

Setup is not the end of the legal layer. The first 12 months of a Taiwan entity carry a predictable compliance cycle:

Most foreign-owned entities outsource the recurring compliance load to a CPA firm at a monthly fee that is materially lower than equivalent services in Tokyo, Seoul, or Singapore.

DIY vs consultant cost trade-off

The setup process is documented publicly. A foreign company can, technically, do this with a bilingual filing agent and a local CPA. The honest question is: what does a market-entry consultant add over a paperwork agent?

The right answer depends on the company. Companies with an experienced APAC team that has set up before and a clear product-market fit hypothesis can compress the consulting layer. Companies entering a new region with no prior local relationships almost always recover the consulting fee through avoided mistakes — particularly in entity type, bank choice, and the first three hires.

Common pitfalls in the setup phase

1. Filing the FIA before the business scope is finalized — scope changes after FIA require re-notarized board resolutions in the parent jurisdiction.
2. Choosing a Chinese name that fails the pre-check after documents are already notarized — the name appears on the notarized articles; a rejection forces re-notarization.
3. Setting paid-in capital too low to pass bank KYC — banks expect capital proportionate to declared business scope; a NT$100K capital for a "import and distribution" scope reads as a shell.
4. Underestimating director KYC — non-Asian-passport directors with complex source-of-funds histories should expect deeper bank diligence.
5. Forgetting the registered address requirement — the address must exist on day one of company registration; virtual office addresses are sometimes flagged by banks even when MOEA accepts them.
6. Ignoring industry licensing until after registration — TFDA, NCC, FSC, and import-permit processes have lead times that should be initiated alongside company registration, not after.
7. Hiring the first employee before labor insurance is registered — produces back-fines and labor-bureau complications.
8. Treating work permits as an afterthought — Gold Card and Entrepreneur Visa applications can be initiated in parallel with company setup; sequenced after the fact, they add months to the founder's effective time-on-the-ground.

Internal cross-references

Related pillar guides: Taiwan Market Entry Guide (strategy) · Asia Expansion from Taiwan (bridge strategy)

Service pages: Legal & Compliance · Market Entry · Fundraising · Marketing · Sales Channel Development · Investor Access

Country-specific entry context: From Japan · From Korea · From Singapore · From China (PRC-capital handling)

Next step

If you want a clean Taiwan setup without re-doing notarized documents twice, talk to us before the FIA is filed. ROLL ON. coordinates entity selection, document choreography, bank pre-alignment, and work-permit sequencing as one program. Email Vivian.lee@roll-grp.com or see the market entry service.