With over $1.3 trillion USD in GDP, the Taiwanese market gives your business access to the world’s 20th largest economy and 23 million Chinese-speaking individuals. Those who have minimal access to the Asia market may enjoy the benefits of starting their expansions in Taiwan, giving them direct access to hi-tech/manufacturing industries, a transparent legal system, and direct access to other Asian countries through Taiwan’s export-oriented capitalist economy. In recent years, Microsoft, Google and IBM have been actively investing in Taiwan.
Kingdom’s Law Firm has experience helping public and private companies successfully invest and expand in Taiwan. Our firm has extensive experience assisting multi-billion dollar conglomerates in complex transactions such as special licensing requirements and joint ventures. We specialize in foreign investments and counsel clients on legal and regulatory concerns associated with business investments. We understand complex cross-border issues associated with investments and our legal team works with tax professionals to assist you with:
Foreign investments in Taiwan are subject to the control of the Negative List. To conduct certain kinds of business activities in Taiwan, foreign investors must seek and obtain special licenses from government agencies. We have successful experiences obtaining these licenses and are ready to assist our clients with related planning, negotiations and documentation preparation.
Industry counseling
We have substantial experience working with various Taiwanese companies with significant manufacturing capabilities and are able to construct investment strategy that best fits each market sector and at the same time is tailored to client’s needs. We assist foreign investors in identifying investment opportunities and anticipating challenges in various Taiwanese industries. We also have intensive expertise in working with intellectual property and integrating it into various business sectors.
Merger & acquisitions and company buyouts
Foreign investors, depending on their respective business goals in Taiwan, sometimes would consider working with their Taiwanese partners through a newly formed joint venture entity in Taiwan. The typical cooperative pattern would require the foreign partner to provide intellectual property rights e.g., trademarks, patents, know-hows, in exchange for local sales channels which the local partner should provide.
However, if a foreign partner, for one reason or another, eventually decides to buy out its local partner from (or sell its interests in) the joint venture company, many M&A issues under, due diligence reports, joint venture agreement, license agreement, etc., may arise to create disputes between the parties if they have not been fully addressed when the joint venture company was first established. We can help resolve these critical issues early on to prevent subsequent complications which foreign investors should always avoid.
Corporate restructuring
We offer comprehensive, effective and flexible solutions to foreign investors that go through corporate restructuring overseas. We assist in understanding clients’ corporate restructuring options and minimizing risks of potential harm. Depending on clients’ strategic goals we navigate them in adapting to fast-changing business circumstances offering advice in tax, corporate and dispute matters. We offer comprehensive services which are based on clients’ commercial needs.
Joint venture operations
Joint venture may be a preferred business model for foreign investors who intend to cooperate with the local partners in opening up Taiwan as their final or intermediary (to China or Southeast Asia) markets.
In this situation, the first issue to tackle is the shareholding percentages to be held by each joint venture partner; and the second issue will then be the number of board membership seats to be taken by each of them. There are also important issues such as how they will split the profits (if they are making money) and how one party can buy out the other quitting party (if they are losing money). As such, parties’ joint venture agreement and the newly formed joint venture company’s articles of incorporations are the two critical documents to be well thought of ahead for foreign investors’ protection, and on these issues we have extensive experience to contribute to our foreign clients.
Share acquisition
When foreign investors, to facilitate their business goals, plan on acquiring an existing company in Taiwan, it will need to buy company stock from an existing shareholder of the target company, which basically constitutes a merger of the existing Taiwanese company by foreign investors. Depending on the buyer’s financial arrangements, it could be a one-shot deal or a series of transactions to be consummated by cash or share swaps.
For this purpose, legal due diligence is a must-do to consist of lawyers’ in-depth examination of issued related to the target company’s regulatory compliance, employment, IP, contracts, etc. In addition, foreign investors’ participation in an existing Taiwanese company will turn it into an Foreign Investment Approval company entitled to the protection of the laws in Taiwan, for which we can help foreign clients achieve to protect their investments in Taiwan.
Foreign acquisition interest of Taiwan enterprises
To develop your business globally you will need to increase its presence in a foreign region or country. Taiwan would be a perfect place to do that. We assist clients in successfully managing legal, commercial and cultural matters arising in the process of executing all types of cross-border acquisitions. Performing various kinds of public and private transactions, we offer professional legal and business-focused advice, as well as identify related risks.
Technology transfer
Technology transfer will create a cooperative framework between foreign investors and their local partners whereby the foreign investors, as the licensors, allow their technologies to be used by local partners, as licensees, for manufacturing purposes.
In return, licensors receive royalty fees from a such a transaction. Patent license represents typical technology transfer, but it could also include a license of trade secrets, know-how, copyright, trademark, etc. to be used by the licensee. Sometimes technology transfer also includes technical assistance from the licensors, for which the licensee, in addition to the royalty fees to pay, should also pay fees for such technical services.
The key document to use is the license agreement which usually includes several key articles, such as duty of confidentiality, covenant not to compete or challenge, licensor’s audit right, etc., to negotiate between the parties before they can finalize and sign off the agreement.
We speak your language. We understand you when you use terminologies such as crypto, block chain, neural networks, FinFETs, gettering or voltage regulators. We have coders and inventors with hands-on experience. Our native Chinese, English and Russians speakers have graduated from the world's leading universities. We collectively translate to ensure the quality of our document translation. We'll be happy to assist you in professional document translations.
Inheritance
We assist high net worth individuals with inheritance planning and asset protection.
Stamp Tax
In Taiwan, the following four types of documents are subject to stamp tax:
Receipts of monetary payments including payment records, receipts, bank books or any other records that identify monetary payments.
Contracting agreements which complete a specific job or task such as construction contracts, printing contracts, OEM contracts.
Deeds or contracts for sale, transfer, exchange, or partition of real estate, or pledge of lien on real estate to be submitted to government agencies for registration.
Deeds for sale of movables.
In general, the taxpayer of the stamp tax is the person who executes the deeds, contracts, or receipts above.
Although in certain cases exemptions to the stamp tax may apply, the general stamp tax rates are shown below:
Type
Tax Rates
Monetary Receipts
0.4% of amount received or 0.1% for money deposited by bidders.
Contracting Agreements
0.1% of contracting price
Contracts of deeds for sale, transfer, exchange, partition or pledge of lien on real estate
0.1% of contract price or value of real estate
Contracts for sale of movables
NT$12 per piece
Why choose Kingdom’s Law Firm for investments?
We have over 30 years of work experience assisting public and private companies in Taiwan and abroad with complicated legal issues.
We specialize in complex cross-border transactions.
We are familiar with local laws and regulations.
We have successfully assisted startups grow into publicly listed companies and can anticipate legal exposures as you grow your business.
Our team is composed of native English, Russian and Chinese speakers.
We leverage modern technology to expedite applications and paperwork.
We work with tax professionals to help you with tax planning.
We assist in solving all relevant legal issues, such as contract drafting, review, negotiations etc., arising while establishing a business, in the process of running it in Taiwan or expanding to other countries.
We provide time-saving and issue-spotting assistance when it is required to obtain a special government approval to invest in restricted areas.
Our legal team is specialized in corporate governance, compliance and export. Prior to joining our firm, some of our counsels have served as in-house general counsel in listing companies. We understand the intricacies and complexities that arise in large corporate environments. We regularly advise international corporations entering into local jurisdiction on governmental procedures, compliance and regulatory matters. In Taiwan, we have one of the best legal teams when it comes to hostile takeovers and proxy contests. Our experience includes hostile takeovers and defensive counseling that have been recognized as landmark cases in Taiwan. Strategies such as poison pill are not applicable in Taiwan and we excel at creative defensive counseling. We provide the following legal services for our clients:
Through proper legal planning we will help you reduce your business risks.
Foreign Investments
We specialize in foreign investments and counsel clients on legal and regulatory concerns associated with business investments. We understand complex cross-border issues associated with investments and our legal team works with tax professionals to assist you with:
Document preparation
Governmental approval
Industry counseling
Management buyouts
Restructuring of corporate groups
Foreign acquisition interest of Taiwan enterprises
Real Estate
Contracts
Contract review, negotiation and drafting is our specialty. The key benefits of hiring an attorney for contract due diligence is that only an experienced local law firm can control your legal exposures beforehand when entering into uncharted territory. We are familiar with the local laws and regulations and know what terms are enforceable in Taiwan. Even if your business is not located in Taiwan, as long as you engage business with a Taiwanese company, it is advised that you have a competent local Taiwanese law firm review your contracts to secure your future interest.
Our legal team has extensive contract experience in drafting robust contracts of confidentiality, letter of intents, memorandum of understanding, fund management, procurement, sales, license, lease, joint venture or joint development. Leveraging over 30 years of practical legal experience, we regularly handle some of the most complex local and cross-border contracts. Unlike other practices, our attorneys have both litigation and non-litigation experience so that we are aware of the legal risks involved in your contractual agreements. Our attorneys and consultants have experience representing clients in industries including telecommunication, semiconductor, venture capital, construction, pharmaceutical and biotechnology. Through our expertise in contracts and cross-border transactions, we are specialized to assist startups grow into major international conglomerates. Our legal professionals are trained to anticipate concerns and preclude unnecessary controversies. We are prepared to assist you with drafting, negotiating and resolving discrepancies.
We have extensive experience with M&A transactions covering diverse clients in both the public and private sectors. We help carry out all phases of the M&A transactions from due diligence, structuring, negotiation to closing. Our expertise with relevant laws including corporate, tax, securities, labor, fair competition and data protection allows us to address legality issues surrounding a company during and after its merger. In recent years, the importance of data protection and compliance has increased; it now plays a critical role in M&A. In fact, our founder has helped revise the data protection laws in Taiwan. With our experience, our lawyers are ready to assist you with a cost-efficient transaction at every stage. To help facilitate a smooth transaction, we leverage our interdisciplinary team with experience in tax, intellectual property, employment and corporate counseling. One of our particular strengths is cross-border transactions and have covered such transactions between the United States, Taiwan, and China.
Intellectual Property
We understand that intellectual property is one of the most valuable assets for any company. We have extensive experience with intellectual property, assisting startup companies and international conglomerates. Our founder helped revise trade secret laws in Taiwan.
Kingdom's Law Firm advises clients on how to secure their data and prevent both internal and external threats to their intellectual property.
We have a diverse team with multilingual capabilities and advanced degrees ranging from materials science, electrical engineering to computer science. We have experience working with the world's most prolific inventors and researchers from world-class research centers.
Our copyright experience includes arts, literary work and computer software. We address complex issues that arise from copyright protection. We also assist with trademark search and registration. We will help you plan and manage your intellectual property strategy in areas of license and related negotiations.
When necessary, we leverage our litigation team to sue for damages and injunctive relief. For cross-border litigation, we collaborate with some of the world's best intellectual property firms.
Litigation
Our team of lawyers will assist you in civil, criminal, administrative, intellectual property litigation and arbitration cases. We understand that every case is unique and requires innovative solutions that are practical. We will work with you on a case-by-case basis, weigh the pros and cons of various scenarios and provide an optimal strategy to ensure that your interests are addressed.
We have extensive experience with cross-border litigation including in Europe, United States, and Hong Kong. We are not limited to any network of law firms. This enables us to select and collaborate with the world's best law firms for our cross-border litigations depending on our clients' needs.
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