台商設立境外公司之選擇分析與比較

The Analysis and Comparison of Taiwanese Businesses’ Choices to Set Up Offshore Companies

張瓊文(Chiung-Wen Chang)

指導教授 ： 何憲章

國立臺灣大學/管理學院/財務金融學研究所/碩士(2008年)

https://doi.org/10.6342/NTU.2008.10070

摘要

數十年來台灣產業穩定發展，加上政府鼓勵國內企業對外投資，許多大型企業已走向國際化，到其他已開發國家及開發中國家，以尋找海外市場、降低生產成本或是尋求技術上的發展。因此，對外投資額有逐年增加的趨勢，觀察台商投資全球各地區的比重發現，加勒比海英屬國近十多年來佔總對外投資額相當大的比例。然而這地區的國家沒有前述台商投資海外市場之功能，並非台灣出口的目標市場、也無勞工便宜或生產技術之優越性。但由於這些英國屬地或是前殖民地都有租稅優惠的特性，吸引台灣企業到該國設立境外公司，以達到避稅、轉投資及其他財務操作之功能，亦是企業走向國際化的跳板。
國內先前研究過免稅天堂的文獻中，結論出規模愈大型企業愈傾向於設立境外公司進行轉投資，而規模越小則否。本研究除了探討國內企業對外投資之行為外，亦針對上市公司對外投資地區的偏好做一分析與比較，並配合2001年以來國內外經濟發展情勢，進一步瞭解其對國人對外投資的影響。
研究發現國內上市電子公司設立境外公司的數量，於2002至2006年期間佔台灣上市公司投資境外公司家數的一半以上，且成長快速，由於國內上市公司以電子產業家數最多，設立境外公司數量較其他產業多亦合情合理。但若是以各產業設立境外公司百分比予以數量比較，則電子業並不是設立境外公司百分比最多的產業。產業投資需求會影響設立境外公司地點的選擇，運輸業的境外公司多集中在運輸位置重要的巴拿馬與香港，金融保險業則集中在金融業發達的香港、英屬維京群島與開曼群島，而其他產業對於境外基地的選擇雷同，不論是電子業或是非電子業皆偏好於英屬維京群島設立境外公司，而成長率最高的境外地區則是薩摩亞群島及開曼群島。
為瞭解國內企業對境外地區選擇的影響因素，本研究針對企業偏愛境外地區的前十名，整理比較各地區境外公司設立條件及運用方法，以瞭解其受歡迎的原因。

關鍵字

境外公司 ； 紙上公司 ； 境外金融中心 ； 免稅天堂 ； 租稅天堂

並列摘要

Due to the steady industrial development in recent decades in Taiwan and the incentives the government gave to local companies for foreign investments, many large-scaled enterprises expanded to other developed and developing countries to seek oversea markets, lower manufacturing costs or technical development. Therefore, the amount of money invested oversea increased year after year. Observing the distribution of capital invested by Taiwanese enterprises globally, it was found that the capital invested in Countries in Caribbean Sea accounted for a great ratio in total oversea investment. However, the countries in Caribbean Sea didn’t have the functions that Taiwanese businessmen sought when investing oversea. On one hand, they were not the target countries that Taiwanese companies exported to. On the other hand, they didn’t have the advantage of cheap labor force or manufacturing skills. What was more, those Caribbean countries either were British territories or used to be British colonies. The common characteristic they had was tax incentives, attracting Taiwanese businessmen to set up offshore companies in order to save tax, transfer in investment and conduct other financial functions. It also worked as a launching pad for a company’s globalization.
In the local literatures on the topic of tax haven, it was concluded that the larger scale one enterprise had, the more it tended to set up offshore companies to transfer in investment and vice versa. Besides discussing local enterprises’ investing behaviors, this research would also analyze and compare the preferred oversea areas where listed companies invested. Observing local and international economic development trend since 2001, this research would try to find out its effects on foreign investment.
It was found that the amount of offshore companies set up by listed electronic companies from 2002 to 2006 accounted for more than half of those set up by entire listed companies. The growth was rapid as well. However, the majority of local listed companies were related to the electronic industry. It was reasonable that electronic companies owned more offshore companies than those in any other industries. Comparing the average offshore companies owned by each industry, electronic industry didn’t own the most. The different needs each industry had when investing affected the preference of location when registering offshore companies. For example, the companies in transportation tended to set up offshore companies in Panama and Hong Kong for the reason of important transportation locations. Financial and insurance companies preferred Hong Kong, British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands for their well-developed financial systems. It seemed that there were no big differences of preferences when companies in other industries chose offshore jurisdictions. Not only electronic but also other industries preferred British Virgin Islands the most to set up offshore companies. The two offshore jurisdictions that have highest growth rate of offshore companies registered by Taiwanese listed companies were Samoa and Cayman Islands.
With a view to understanding the factors that influence local companies to choose different offshore jurisdictions, this research would compare the characteristics of top-ten offshore jurisdictions preferred by local listed companies and their functions to see why they were popular.

並列關鍵字

offshore company ； paper company ； offshore financial center ； tax haven ； tax paradise

參考文獻

9. 莊豐銘，「台灣上市公司到租稅天堂設立公司之決定因素」，國立成功大學會計學系碩博士班碩士論文，民國94年。

12. Financial Service Commission Mauritius (http://www.gov.mu/portal/sites/ncb/fsc/index.html)

13. International Business Companies Registry of Belize

14. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

1. 中華經濟研究院，「國外投資事業營運狀況調查分析報告」，經濟部投資審議委員會，民國89年~民國96年。