Setting Up

Setting up a company in Taiwan as a foreigner is relatively straight forward. I used a larger international accounting company (Grant Thornton International - Taipei) to do this. It cost me NT$80,000 to do this, but communicating with them was simple. This was particularly important as I was in Australia whilst setting up the company. The process takes about 8-10 weeks as it involves getting approval from the Foreign Investment Board.

Prior to going with Grant Thornton I did some searching on expat blogs and forums and found that some foreigners were setting up for as little as $NT30,000, but this was with a local accountant and you needed to be very good with your mandarin.
Be prepared spend time and money to have to get all kinds of documents certified by notorized republics and the local Taiwanese Consulate in your country.

About 3 months prior to setting up the company, I had come to Taiwan and interviewed a potential staff member. I found this candidate (Claire) via LinkedIn.com. I made contact and setup a meeting. Claire had good experience, was fluent in both English and Chinese, and appeared to be trustworthy and have high integrity.

Claire started working for me about 1 month before the company was formally established. I cannot emphasize enough how helpful the local knowledge is, and would recommend that anyone planning to set up in Taiwan ensure that they have a local that they can work with and rely on. There are so many things that I would have hated to have to have performed on my own.

Banking...

I am still coming to grips with the banking system and practices in Taiwan, and have been frustrated a number of times.

When setting up the company, the accountants setup my account to deposit my funds with ChinaTrust Bank. Very few of their staff speak English, so I have been lucky to have Claire to assist me.

I asked for internet banking to be setup, but it is only in Chinese. I asked for a cheque book facility, but they want to “observe” your account for 6 months first. I told them they can observe me transfer my balance to another bank. I am thinking of moving to HSBC bank, will keep you posted on how things turn out. In the meantime I am paying cash for everything.

Other banking observations:

They love paperwork and documentation. Bring everything you have got in the way of ID, company registration papers, etc. Also as a foreigner you cannot setup a new bank account until you have your ARC. (Alien Residency Certificate).
Internet banking is limited to NT$30,000 transfers unless you register the person/business that you are paying as a “nominated account”.

They use “chops” on all official documentation and bank withdrawals. Chops are like a rubber stamp with your name on it in a stylised design. In the case of a company you have a chop for the company and one for the individual too. If you pay an additional NT$100 to the bank you can request that withdrawals from your account require a signature as well as chops.

I got an ATM card which has made banking a lot more practical. As yet I have not been paid any money so I can’t talk about the experience of depositing funds at the bank.