2010年后代表处仍是外资进入中国所青睐的商业形式吗?(英文)

Is Representative Office still a Popular Business Structure in China for Foreign Investors after 2010?

自2010年起,中国政府部门陆续出台了一系列关于外国企业常驻代表机构(简称为"代表处")的规定,使得代表处在合规性与税收等方面受到了更加严格的监管。本文旨在通过对代表处有关法规出台前后的法律规制环境的介绍与比较,分析了在上述法规实施后,代表处是否仍然是外资进入中国的一种有效的、便捷的商业形式。虽然,代表处仍具有其它外商投资商业形式(如外商投资企业)所不具备的优势,如无资金要求、设立流程相对简单等,但日趋严格的监管、大幅提高的罚款金额、提升的合规要求以及增加的税负在一定程度上降低了代表处的可利用性和受欢迎程度。

Since 2010 the Chinese government has issued a series of rules governing representative office of foreign enterprise. As a result,representative offices have been facing more stringent regulation and oversight in China in terms of compliance and taxation. This essay introduces the legal regimes governing representative offices in China before and after the enactment of the aforesaid relevant rules and compares the two legal regimes in order to reflect the new changes. By analyzing the regulatory evolvement,the essay analyzes whether a representative office is still an efficient and favorable business structure for foreign investors. Although a representative office still features advantages that other business structures of foreign investment（such as foreign-invested enterprise） do not have,for example,absence of capital requirement and relatively simpler set-up formalities,the more stringent administration and supervision by the Chinese government,steeper fines,increased administrative and regulatory burden,and increased tax liabilities may make the representative office a somewhat less favorable structure for foreign companies that want to do business in China.