Frequently Asked Questions
What does HainanInc do?
HainanInc is a corporate advisory group that helps foreign capital and executives establish, operate, and grow a presence in the Hainan Free Trade Port — spanning entity formation, Free Trade Port incentives, immigration, employment, trademark protection, and ongoing compliance.
Do you work with individuals as well as companies?
Both. We serve private wealth principals relocating or restructuring personally, and corporate entities establishing or operating a Hainan presence — under the same engagement model either way.
Do you have offices outside Haikou?
We also operate from Sanya. Both offices run on the same team and the same documented compliance calendar rather than independent regional desks, so a client's engagement doesn't depend on which office happens to be handling it.
Do you do the bookkeeping and tax filings yourselves?
We run the compliance calendar, review what is prepared, and remain your point of contact — but the books and the tax filings themselves are carried by a licensed bookkeeping firm. Keeping another company's statutory books and filing its returns are licensed activities in mainland China, and we do not hold that licence. Each affected service page names the licence and says which part is ours.
Who is the legal employer under your Employer of Record arrangement?
A licensed labour dispatch provider is, not HainanInc. Acting as the legal employer of another company's staff is a licensed activity in mainland China; we select and manage the provider, reconcile each payroll cycle, and handle the relationship, while they carry the employment, social insurance, and housing fund obligations. Chinese law also restricts which roles can be filled this way and caps dispatched headcount, so we test your hiring plan against those limits before an offer goes out rather than after.
What makes Hainan different from setting up in Shanghai or Shenzhen?
The Free Trade Port's preferential regimes — a reduced corporate income tax rate for enterprises in encouraged industries, a capped individual income tax rate for qualifying talent, and duty exemptions under the zero-tariff lists. None are automatic: each depends on eligibility conditions the entity has to meet at the outset and keep meeting, substantive operation in Hainan being the main one. Assessing whether they are genuinely available to a given business is its own practice area for us.
How does an engagement typically start?
With a confidential assessment of your objectives, capital structure, and jurisdictional exposure, followed by a written proposal setting out entity structure, timeline, and fee architecture — presented for your approval before any engagement begins.
What is the compliance dossier?
A briefing on the regulatory, banking, and substance requirements shaping foreign entry into the Free Trade Port. Request a copy through our enquiry form and we will confirm scope before sending it.
How is pricing structured?
Milestone-based, scoped in writing before work begins. Government disbursements are billed at cost and itemised separately. Engagements typically start with a paid strategic consultation before any structuring work is scoped.
What languages can you work in?
English and Mandarin Chinese are our working languages, and both are used for documentation and correspondence. Where a matter requires another language, we arrange certified translation rather than claiming in-house capability.
Do you publish client names or case studies?
We never publish client names. The engagements described on this site are composite accounts drawn from work of that type, with identifying details removed. During an initial consultation we can talk through examples closer to your own circumstances.