LehmanBrown International Accountants

In China, many expatriates have come and established their professional or entrepreneurial careers and, with time, consider moving once again to expand their business or explore new professional careers in another country. However, some expatriates, unfortunately, plan not to come back and often miss out on the large sums of Social Insurance they are entitled to collect back if they have been paying social insurance during their working time in China.

There has been a growing trend of overseas companies seeking to register in one of China’s cross-border e-commerce platforms as a strategy to access a new market in search of new sources of revenue. MSI's Chinese accounting member LehmanBrown International Accountants provide general advice and information about establishing a representative office in China.

China is looking to better facilitate resident permits and visa issuance to foreign nationals who have particular high-level talents that are of interest to China for its future development. The policies overall seem to streamline the process foreigners have to go through to apply for their visa and permanent residence permits, and opens new opportunities to make it easier for young professionals and highly skilled individuals to work for well-established organisations with good standing or for innovative and entrepreneurial organisations and activities. Not all regions have the same policies, thus making the benefits different from region to region. MSI's Chinese accounting member LehmanBrown explains the policy changes for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Shenzhen highlighting the benefits in each region.

For the purposes of further encouraging overseas investors to invest in China, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce recently issued the Circular about Expanding the Scope of Application of temporary waiver for Withholding Income Tax on Direct Investments with Distributed Profits by Overseas Investors (Cai Shui [2018] No. 102). Compared with the previous policy of Cai Shui [2017] No. 88, the scope of application of withholding income tax for foreign investors has been expanded with other provisions remain the same. MSI's Chinese accounting member Lehman Brown Ltd. provides further information.

MSI's Chinese accounting member firm Lehman Brown Limited provides an overview of the administrative measures on foreign-invested securities companies.

On 28 June 2018, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) in China jointly announced the release of Special Administrative Measures for Foreign Investment Access. The new negative list widens market access for foreign investors in 22 industries. MSI's Chinese member firm Lehman Brown Limited provides an analysis of China's new "Negative List".