Corporate Services in China

MSA offers business support and consulting services to support clients' success in China. Our experts provide insights, information, and advice for compliant, successful China operations.

We advise on China market entry, including the type of investment vehicles in China best suited to our client’s specific industries, sizes, and backgrounds. Our support ranges from company registration in China to local and international business expansion and profit repatriation. Via our range of corporate services, we guide our clients step by step, from company setup in China to ongoing operational support, where we have supported hundreds of foreign companies from a wide range of industries with their business operations in China and Hong Kong.

Our corporate services offering

Corporate Establishment

We support foreign investors seeking to enter or expand their presence in the Chinese market by setting up a local Chinese entity (including WFOE, Joint Venture, Rep. Office, and Branches). Our advice to our clients covers not only the legal incorporation of a Chinese entity but also support with a bank account and tax registrations and applications for other licenses (e.g., customs license, F&B license, etc.) to establish a fully functioning and ready-for-operations legal entity in China.

Corporate Restructuring

Companies with a presence in China and/or Hong Kong may have various reasons to change certain aspects of the company registration or structure after incorporation. As a full-service provider, we support our clients with all changes to their business structure, such as changes in company address, business scope, capital, directors/registered personnel, etc. We alleviate the administrative burden by completing the necessary amendment of the company’s statutory record with the relevant government authorities.

Structure Your Entity in China

When setting up an entity in China, there are a whole range of crucial...

Company Liquidation

Various reasons may lead foreign investors to conclude that their Chinese subsidiary is no longer in the group’s best interest. However, when a company decides to close its operations in China, it is essential to follow the proper company deregistration procedure to avoid any impact on its ability to do business with China in the future. Here, our team of tax, financial, and legal experts supports all aspects of company closure in China.

Profit Repatriation

The primary objective for most foreign-invested enterprises in China is to earn a return on their investment. However, since repatriating funds out of China is considered a strenuous challenge due to China’s foreign exchange controls, companies with operations in China must develop a sound profit repatriation strategy. We support our clients with all known strategies to repatriate profit out of China, including dividends, service fees, royalties, reimbursements, and intercompany loans, where we advise on the tax impact, requirements, and procedure of the chosen profit repatriation method.

Testimonials

MSA has been our trusted advisor throughout the entire lifecycle of our China journey, enabling us to dispatch employees (EOR) to China while having no legal entity and the incorporation and operationalization of our Chinese subsidiary. After this, MSA continues to prove its value as an advisor in supporting not only Chinese accounting, taxation, and compliance requirements but also by advising on specific licensing requirements within the horticulture industry in China, such as those for trading in pesticides and other chemicals. With a profound understanding of our headquarters’ interests and a thorough understanding of local business practices in China, MSA has enabled us to balance the often-conflicting requirements for control and compliance with our ambitious China growth strategy.

Royal Brinkman

Vincent Van Der Wilk
Area Manager Asia & Africa at Royal Brinkman

For our fast-growing business, we need a reliable partner to handle all our payroll-related matters, which we found in MSA. They helped us streamline our internal processes by implementing and improving compliance processes from a legal perspective and in terms of our corporate policies. We fully trust in the confidentiality of our employees’ data, as they ensure secure data storage from internationally recognized providers. Whether on ad-hoc requests or long-term oriented recurring matters, we always receive a fast and complete response to our questions that help us achieve our compliance goals and overcome the challenges in payroll, IIT, and social security in China.

Genuine German

Damian Maib
Founder

MSA was our first choice when we were looking for a China-based accounting firm with a fundamental understanding of our Belgian background and the ability to connect two diverging business cultures. As our company operates with the corporate ERP system Oracle, we are delighted that MSA works through proprietary access directly in our system, ensuring the availability of our company figures in the format we are accustomed to. During our company’s setup procedure, they managed to organize particular steps without the personal presence of the company representatives (e.g., opening a bank account) by identifying alternative verification procedures. We appreciate that MSA always listens to our queries. They are very well connected both within China and internationally. In addition to our questions about our China business, we are glad to receive advice on questions about other international topics from their connections within their global network.

Hybrid Software

Joachim Van Hemelen
Chief Financial Officer

MSA has been an exceptional business partner for our company, whom have a thorough understanding of our internal processes and our ERP system. As a result, and combined with their expertise in finance and taxation, they have been able to support Feinmetall by training our finance- and administrative staff to ensure quality standards and compliance throughout all areas. Because of their availability on short notice, we can rely on MSA’s support at a moment’s notice if required. We further rely on MSA to follow our monthly business on site in China in terms of accounting, taxation, and general compliance. Ensuring full compliance with local regulations and transparency for our management team in Germany is essential and MSA is our trusted partner helping us achieve this.

Feinmetall

Patrik Dinser
Commercial Director

From day one of our collaboration, I have found the team at MSA perfect for our needs. As a UK based business with notable activities in the Far East, we are looking for clear, constructive and accurate advice along with of course day to day financial/fiscal support. This is exactly what we get, and this provides enormous reassurance over the numbers and furthermore excellent support as we grow our business in the Far East. A true partner to our business in every sense of the word.

Badgequo Ltd.

Matt Goldstein
Finance Director

MSA has been our trusted service provider since the establishment of our operations in China. With a profound understanding of Chinese compliance requirements and the ability to translate these requirements in an international context, MSA has enabled us to achieve an exceptional level of transparency and an understanding of the Chinese financial and administrative regulations. After the expansion of our operations in China we continue to rely on the expertise of MSA in relation to taxation matters. MSA continues to reserve dedicated staff members, with a thorough understanding of our operations, whom are ready to support our local finance team in a heartbeat should the need arise.

Lotus Bakeries NV

LOTUS BAKERIES CHINA

MSA is our advisor of choice for complex tax and financial advisory with respect to our China operations. MSA’s team of experts has supported us with extensive advice on various topics such as international transactions, tax implications and business structure optimization. We trust on the company’s knowledge and experience to make well-informed decisions that are key to our company’s success in China. Most notably, MSA’s solid advice and practical support has enabled us to successfully optimize our internal business structure, which included among others comprehensive advice on the optimal business structure for CIBES’ operations in China and subsequent support from MSA with the implementation of the new structure (incl. establishment of 40 branches across Mainland China).

Cibes Lift Group AB

Manuel Neuhofer
Director of Finance and Administration for ASIA & MENA CIBES Lift Group

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