[Investment] Documentary Requirement Eased for Business Registration

The Ministry of Economic Affairs recently revised the “Regulation Governing the Application of Business Registration” to accept a copy of the lease signed by the businessman in his or her own name and by the property owner as a substitute for the letter of consent of the owner for business registration, amendment to registration, and branch office registration. The MOEA’s Department of Commerce notes that in the past, a business person applying for business registration had to affix a copy of the ownership certificate of the building where the business is located; if the owner of the property was not the responsible person of a business, however, then the original copy of an agreement by the owner, or a copy of a lease signed by the business (profit-seeking enterprise) and the owner had to be affixed. At the present time, the responsible persons of solely owned or partnership enterprises frequently sign lease agreements with building owners in their own names. The new relaxation makes business registration easier by allowing a copy of a lease signed by the responsible person of a business and by the property owner to be substituted for an agreement signed by the owner, so long as the lease bears the words, “May be used for business registration or operation” to assure that the owner knows that his or her building is to be registered as a business location.