Taiwan company formation in 2026: two to three months, because of the investment approval

Taiwan is not competing for offshore incorporations and does not pretend to. It is competing for companies that want to sit inside the semiconductor and hardware supply chain, and the formation process is built around a government that wants to know who is investing and why.

Here is the short version. A foreign-owned Taiwanese company takes about two to three months: Foreign Investment Approval typically runs six to eight weeks, and incorporation another four. A purely domestic company can be done in one to two weeks. The usual vehicle is a Company Limited by Shares. Corporate income tax is 20%, plus a 5% surtax on earnings left undistributed by the end of the following year. There is no statutory minimum capital, but capital must be adequate and CPA-verified, and in practice the Investment Review board expects meaningful paid-in capital. Registration costs 1/4000 of authorised capital, minimum NT$1,000.

The Foreign Investment Approval is the process

This is the step that makes Taiwan slower than the jurisdictions that advertise same-day incorporation, and it is not skippable for a foreign-owned entity. Budget six to eight weeks for it and treat everything else as secondary.

Founders' identity documents and powers of attorney must be notarised and authenticated through a Taiwanese TECO or embassy office abroad. A CPA must verify remitted capital. A corporate bank account must be opened before capital verification, and bank onboarding is the step most likely to require in-person presence or heavy KYC.

Formation is largely doable without travelling, but it is not an online flow and it is not fast.

The capital floor exists, it is just not in the statute

There is no statutory minimum share capital. That statement is technically accurate and practically misleading for a foreign founder.

The Investment Review board expects a foreign-invested company to show meaningful paid-in capital. Where a foreign national serves as General Manager, roughly NT$500,000 is the working floor. Where a foreign national is employed in another role requiring a work permit, roughly NT$5,000,000 applies.

Undercapitalising stalls both the investment approval and the staff visas. The number to plan against comes from how many foreign people you need in Taiwan, not from company law.

Tax: 20%, plus the undistributed-earnings surtax

Profit-seeking enterprise income tax is 20%. On top of that, a 5% surtax applies to earnings left undistributed by the end of the following year — a deliberate push toward distribution that changes the arithmetic for anyone planning to retain profits inside the entity.

Small profits under NT$120,000 are exempt, with graduated relief up to NT$500,000. VAT is 5%.

Taiwan is not a low-tax or offshore location and should not be selected as one. It is chosen for substance and market access.

Directors, agents and audit

No resident director is required, and directors may be foreign non-residents. A Company Limited by Shares needs at least one director, and a single-shareholder structure is available.

What a foreign-invested entity does need is a Taiwan-resident litigation and tax agent and a local registered business address. All statutory filings are in Chinese, so running this hands-off from abroad without local support is not realistic.

Statutory CPA audit becomes mandatory once paid-in capital reaches NT$30 million, or annual net operating revenue reaches NT$100 million, or the company has 100 or more employees, as well as for public companies and financial institutions. Below those thresholds no independent audit is required, though annual tax filing and CPA capital verification still apply.

Who this is actually for

Founders who want a credible, non-offshore Asia-Pacific base with real ties to hardware, intellectual property and technology supply chains, and who are willing to sit through the Foreign Investment Approval process rather than optimising for speed.

For a holding company or a light Asian entity, Singapore and Hong Kong are faster, cheaper and English-language, with no investment-approval step. For manufacturing or hardware operations that need to be physically close to Taiwanese suppliers and engineering talent, none of those substitute for being in Taiwan — which is the only good reason to accept the timetable.