Q: What’s the difference between WOFE and Representative Office?
 
A: To be short, a WOFE is a legal entity while a Representative Office isn’t.
 
For a Representative Office:
1. You cannot hire employees with a representative office directly, but only through outsourcing company;
2. You cannot pay employees salary and buy insurance or securities directly, but only through outsourcing company;
3. You cannot receive payment with representative office’s bank account because a representative office cannot sign sales contracts with your clients;
4. The registered address of a representative office can only be in a business building.
In one word, a representative office is not a legal entity. And the tax of a representative office is calculated by the cost. So, you’ll always have to pay tax because a representative office always has costs.
 
While for a WOFE, that’s a different scenario,
1.     You can hire employees directly with a WOFE;
2.     You can pay employees salary and buy insurance or securities directly with a WOFE;
3.     You can receive payment with a WOFE bank account and sign sales contracts with your clients;
4.     We can provide free registered address in economic park on condition that you let us set up the WOFE for you.
5.     If you don’t have income, you don’t have to pay tax.