Hainan setup checklist

The company setup checklist before you file.

Five phases, from confirming the plan is viable to keeping the company compliant after the licence. This is the sequence we work through with foreign founders before money is spent on registration.

Read the checklist Get a formation assessment

Hainan advisory line: +852 9850 0776

Plan firstBusiness scope, ownership and market access

Certify documentsApostille, legalisation and signatory evidence

Register carefullyName, filing, licence and company seals

Operate cleanlyTax, banking, accounting and annual reporting

The five phases

From an idea to a company that can trade.

Use this as a working sequence. Some regulated projects need extra approval, but the discipline is the same: confirm the route, prepare the evidence, then connect the licence to operations.

Confirm the plan can work

Phase 01

Describe precisely what the company will sell, and to whom.
Screen the activity against the foreign investment negative list and Hainan's own list.
Check the general Market Access Negative List and any sector licence.
Decide whether the shareholder is an individual or an overseas company.
Settle whether the business genuinely needs to operate inside mainland China.

Prepare and certify the documents

Phase 02

Confirm the certification route before anyone signs: apostille or consular legalisation.
Collect passport or overseas company registration documents.
Evidence the overseas company's authorised signatory.
Draft the business scope around the real activity, not a template.
Prepare articles of association and management appointments.
Set registered capital you can fund within the five-year deadline.
Arrange registered address documents.

Register the company

Phase 03

Reserve the company name.
File the registration with the market regulation authority.
Obtain approval first where the project is regulated.
Receive the business licence.
Carve the company seals.

Make the company able to operate

Phase 04

Complete tax registration and confirm taxpayer status.
Arrange fapiao issuance capability and expected limits.
Open the basic RMB settlement account.
Complete foreign direct investment information registration through the bank.
Open a capital account where shareholder funds will be received.
Register social insurance and housing fund before the first hire.
Obtain industry permits before conducting regulated activities.

Keep it compliant and evidenced

Phase 05

Start bookkeeping in the first month, not at the first deadline.
Meet monthly and periodic tax filing deadlines.
Complete the annual corporate income tax reconciliation.
File the annual report for foreign-invested enterprises.
Maintain beneficial-owner and other applicable reporting.
Where a preferential tax rate is claimed, build the substance evidence through the year.

Before you start

Three things worth settling first.

Registered capital is not a fee

It is the shareholders' funding commitment and it stays the company's money. Under the current Company Law it generally must be paid within five years of establishment, so choose a figure you can actually fund.

Requirements and cost factors

Certification before signature

Documents from countries covered by the Apostille Convention normally need an apostille; others may need consular legalisation. Re-executing an incorrectly formed document set is the most avoidable delay in the process.

Documents needed

A Hainan address is not a tax rate

The 15% corporate income tax rate depends on encouraged-industry classification, a revenue threshold and substantive operation in Hainan. Registration alone leaves the company at the standard rate.

Who qualifies for 15%

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Check your route

Want this checked against your own plan?

Tell us the activity, the shareholders and the timeline. We will explain which phases apply, what we need from you and which items depend on a bank or authority decision.

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