A representative office earns nothing in Taiwan, so it has nothing to do with the tax office. That is the usual assumption. It is half right. An office that only buys and liaises for its head office pays no business tax and no corporate income tax on the money the head office sends. It still has to report to its tax office, keep books, and withhold tax under the law when it pays salaries or other income covered by the withholding rules (Ministry of Finance ruling 台財稅第7586964號).
Registration under Article 386 and the five legal acts
Taiwan's Company Act calls the office a 辦事處. The current first paragraph of Article 386 reads: "外國公司因無意在中華民國境內設立分公司營業，未經申請分公司登記而派其代表人在中華民國境內設置辦事處者，應申請主管機關登記". In plain terms, a foreign company that has no intention of opening a branch to do business, and sends a representative to set up an office instead, must register that office with the competent authority. Before the amendment that took effect on November 1, 2018, this was a filing (報備); it is now a registration (登記), as the editor's note on the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) rulings database records.
What can the representative actually do? An MOEA ruling of October 29, 2003 (經商字第09202221350號) said that "legal acts in the course of business" cover, in practice, signing contracts, bidding, quoting and purchasing, and also price negotiation. The MOEA's filing checklist for a foreign company's office (revised June 2, 2026) asks for a power of attorney that names the kinds of legal acts the representative will perform, and gives the same five as examples. The representative in Taiwan files the application. The fee is NT$1,000.
Selling is off the table. Under Article 371, a foreign company may not carry on business in Taiwan in its own name without registering a branch. A person who does so faces imprisonment of up to one year or detention, a fine of up to NT$150,000, or both, and is personally liable in civil law. The 2003 ruling, reading the earlier wording of that article, described business as, in principle, a company's regular and repeated commercial activity.
A buying office and the Ministry of Finance rulings
Taiwan's tax position comes from Ministry of Finance (MOF) rulings from the 1980s. They are still listed in the MOF's online database of tax rulings as of October 2026.
A ruling of September 2, 1986 (台財稅第7558643號) covered a liaison office (聯絡處) set up in Taiwan by a foreign enterprise to purchase for its head office. With no business with outsiders, the office need not register for business tax. The purchasing funds the head office remits fall outside business tax and are exempt from corporate income tax. The reasoning was simple. Buying for the head office is not a sale of services, and money remitted as actually needed is not the office's sales revenue.
Conditions came in a ruling of May 2, 1987. It extended the same exemptions to a liaison office that only purchases, inspects goods and handles communications for its foreign head office. The office must still report to the competent tax office, record receipts and payments in its books as required, and obtain outside vouchers or withhold tax under the law. Non-operating income still has to go on an annual corporate income tax return. A separate 1986 ruling exempted a foreign bank's representative office (代表人辦事處) from business registration where it had no business with outsiders (台財稅第7557083號).
The Income Tax Act has a related carve-out. Its definition of a fixed place of business in Article 10, paragraph 1, includes an office (事務所), but leaves out a warehouse or maintenance facility used solely for purchasing goods and not for processing or manufacturing them.
None of these rulings names a reporting form or the tax ID an office should use for withholding returns. It is worth asking the National Taxation Bureau for the office's district what it expects today.
Payroll and rent: withholding deadlines
Hiring local staff or renting space raises the withholding question at once. Article 89, paragraph 1, item 2 lists salaries (薪資) and rent (租金) among the payments for which agencies, organizations, schools and enterprises (事業) act as withholding agents, and makes the recipient the taxpayer.
Deadlines sit in Article 92, paragraph 1. Tax withheld in a month goes to the treasury by the 10th of the following month. By the end of January, the agent files withholding statements (扣繳憑單) for the previous year with the tax office. Recipients get their copies by February 10. When January has three or more consecutive national holidays, those dates move to February 5 and February 15.
Paying a non-resident individual? The clock is shorter. Under paragraph 2 of the same article, the tax goes to the treasury within 10 days of withholding, and the statement is filed for verification before it is given to the recipient. Payments left unwithheld because they fall below the threshold or outside the withholding rules still go on a non-withholding statement (免扣繳憑單) by the end of January (Article 89, paragraph 3).
Once the office starts selling
Everything changes when the office sells goods or services in Taiwan. Article 3, paragraph 3 of the Regulations Governing Taxation Registration requires a liaison office, office (辦事處) or similar fixed place that does business with outsiders to register before it starts. Item 3 of Article 6 of the Business Tax Act treats a foreign enterprise's fixed place of business in Taiwan as a business entity (營業人) in its own right.
Where the money is collected does not settle it. In a ruling of April 13, 1988, a Japanese company's Kaohsiung office had sold services, and the Japanese head office collected the fee from the buyer in Japan. The MOF required a uniform invoice (統一發票) within 10 days of collection.
On the income tax side, Article 10, paragraph 2 defines a business agent (營業代理人). One limb covers a person who, beyond purchasing, has authority to regularly negotiate business and sign contracts for the enterprise; another covers a person who regularly takes orders for it. Article 41 requires the Taiwan fixed place of business or business agent of a foreign enterprise to keep separate books and be taxed on its own income.
No US treaty, and Vietnam's Article 5(3)
US parents start from a plain fact. As of October 6, 2026, the MOF's list of income tax agreements (updated September 4, 2026) shows no comprehensive agreement with the United States; the only US entry is a 1988 shipping and air transport agreement. The House passed H.R. 33, a US–Taiwan double-tax relief bill, on January 15, 2025, but it had not been enacted as of October 6, 2026. A US company's Taiwan office therefore has no treaty exclusion to fall back on. Taiwan's own rules above decide the question, and a US tax adviser can confirm how any Taiwan tax is treated at home.
Vietnamese companies are in a different position. The Taiwan–Vietnam tax agreement, signed on April 6, 1998 and in force since May 6, 1998, lists "an office" as a permanent establishment in Article 5(2). Article 5(3) then excludes "the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for the purpose of purchasing goods or merchandise or of collecting information, for the enterprise", a fixed place kept solely for any other activity "of a preparatory or auxiliary character", and a combination of these if the overall activity stays preparatory or auxiliary. Taiwan's agreements with Japan and Korea carry the same exclusion as Article 5(4) and Article 5(5) respectively.
Signing authority is the trap. Under Article 5(4) of the Vietnam agreement, a person other than an independent agent who "has and habitually exercises" in Taiwan "an authority to conclude contracts in the name of the enterprise" creates a permanent establishment for the activities that person undertakes. That does not apply where the person's activities are limited to those in Article 5(3). Even where a permanent establishment exists, Article 7(5) attributes no profit to it "by reason of the mere purchase" of goods or merchandise for the enterprise.
Moving to a branch or subsidiary
Repeated sales contracts, fees collected, invoices issued. At that point the office has outgrown its form, and the options are the branch registration that Article 371 requires or a Taiwan subsidiary. An MOEA ruling of April 28, 2008, on the pre-2018 text, held that a branch and an office cannot exist side by side, so a company with an office must close it before setting up a branch. Closing an office takes an application to cancel its registration under Article 386, paragraph 2. The choice between the two forms is covered in Entering the Taiwan Market: Key Differences Between a Subsidiary and a Branch and Setting Up a Company in Taiwan.
If you are unsure whether your office's registered scope still matches what its Taiwan staff actually do, you can write to Hovering International Law Firm at wei@hoveringlaw.com.tw with the registration details and the way contracts are signed.
Even an office with no sales has a January deadline once it pays staff. That is when last year's withholding statements are due.
Official sources
- Company Act (公司法, last amended December 26, 2025): Article 371, Article 386
- Income Tax Act (所得稅法, last amended September 11, 2026): Article 10, Article 41, Article 89, Article 92
- Value-added and Non-value-added Business Tax Act (加值型及非加值型營業稅法, last amended May 28, 2025): Article 6
- Regulations Governing Taxation Registration (稅籍登記規則, last amended August 8, 2022): Article 3
- MOEA rulings: 經商字第09202221350號 (October 29, 2003), 經商字第09702045080號 (April 28, 2008)
- MOEA GCIS portal: 外國公司設立辦事處應附文件及注意事項 (revised June 2, 2026)
- MOF rulings: 台財稅第7558643號 (September 2, 1986), 台財稅第7586964號 (May 2, 1987), 台財稅第7557083號 (July 30, 1986), 台財稅第770095360號 (April 13, 1988)
- MOF, list of Taiwan's income tax agreements (updated September 4, 2026); Taiwan–Vietnam agreement English text and Chinese text; Taiwan–Japan agreement English text; Taiwan–Korea agreement English text
- US Congress, H.R. 33, 119th Congress
Checked: October 6, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does a representative office with no sales have any Taiwan tax duties?
- Yes. A 1987 Ministry of Finance ruling says an office that only purchases, inspects goods and handles communications for its foreign head office, with no business with outsiders, need not register for business tax and pays no business tax or corporate income tax. It must still report to the tax office, keep books of what it receives and pays, and obtain vouchers or withhold tax under the law. Non-operating income still requires an annual return.
- When is tax withheld from local staff salaries due?
- Under Article 92, paragraph 1 of the Income Tax Act, tax withheld in a month is paid to the treasury by the 10th of the next month. Withholding statements for the year are filed with the tax office by the end of January and given to employees by February 10, or by February 5 and February 15 when January has three or more consecutive national holidays.
- Does a US company's Taiwan office get treaty protection from permanent establishment rules?
- No. As of October 6, 2026 there is no comprehensive income tax agreement between Taiwan and the United States; the Ministry of Finance lists only a 1988 shipping and air transport agreement. Whether a US company's Taiwan office is taxable is decided under Taiwan's domestic law, including Article 10 of the Income Tax Act and the Ministry of Finance rulings on liaison offices.
This article provides general information and is not legal advice on any individual matter.
