On September 1, Xiaomi officially announced the establishment of an automobile company with an investment of 10 billion yuan, and Lei Jun personally served as the head of the company. However, the location of Xiaomi Auto Co., Ltd. was not revealed that day, and there are still many speculations online.

On September 2, Tianyancha showed that the registered address of Xiaomi Auto Co., Ltd. is Room 816, Floor 8, Building 5, No. 15 Kechuang 10th Street, Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, and the registration authority is Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone Market Supervision Administration.

In early April 2014, some media said that at the China Internet of Vehicles Conference, Lei Jun said that the Xiaomi pure electric vehicle secretly developed by Xiaomi and a well-known car company is expected to be mass-produced as early as 2015; April On the 5th, Lei Jun clarified the news about Xiaomi Motors through his personal Weibo. Xiaomi has no plans to make electric vehicles and will continue to focus on core businesses such as smartphones. On March 30, 2021, Lei Jun announced that Xiaomi Group would establish a wholly-owned subsidiary to be responsible for the smart electric vehicle business. On April 1, 2021, Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd. applied to register the "Xiaomi Auto" trademark. On July 28, 2021, Lei Jun announced that Xiaomi Automobile’s autonomous driving department has begun recruiting. The first batch of 500 elite autonomous driving technicians will be recruited to develop L4 intelligent driving capabilities on their own and support offices in many places across the country. On September 1, Xiaomi Automobile Co., Ltd. was incorporated with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan.

Industry analysis shows that in the long run, Xiaomi Motors may choose to expand its presence in more places, although its headquarters is in Beijing. For example, Xiaomi already has some teams working in Shanghai, mainly responsible for research and development; but the manufacturing factory may choose two or three cities, and Wuhan is likely to land the factory. Related Q&A: Related Q&A: Will companies like Xiaomi that are registered in the Cayman Islands move to China?

Let’s first take a look at which Chinese companies are registered in the Cayman Islands.

Speaking of the Cayman Islands, many people are probably familiar with it. It is called a tax haven. Not only are a large number of Chinese companies registered here, but many famous companies from other countries in the world are also registered here.

Chinese companies currently registered in the Cayman Islands are as follows:

Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, NetEase, Xiaomi, JD.com, Evergrande, China Unicom, Lenovo, Shanda, and 5155 , Giant Network, Qihoo 360, Sina, Huiyuan, Mengniu, Focus Media, etc. Most of the companies listed in the United States and Hong Kong are registered in the Cayman Islands.

Of course, in addition to mainland companies, many well-known Hong Kong companies will also place their registration places in the Cayman Islands. For example, after Li Ka-shing split his industry in 2015, he established two newly established companies, Changjiang The registered places of Hutchison Industrial and Cheung Kong Real Estate have been moved to the Cayman Islands

In addition to Chinese companies, there are currently many world-famous companies that have also set up their registered places in the Cayman Islands or set up offices in the Cayman Islands. There are branches, such as the familiar Apple, Coca-Cola, Intel and other companies that also have subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands.

Currently, there are about 10,000 newly registered companies in the Cayman Islands every year. The world's 25 largest banks have subsidiaries or branches in Cayman, and more than 700 banks around the world have branches in the Cayman Islands. The total assets of the island's financial and trust industries have exceeded US$250 billion, accounting for 7% of the total Eurodollar transactions.

So why do so many companies choose the Cayman Islands as their place of registration?

Seeing that so many well-known Chinese companies have their registration places in the Cayman Islands, I guess many netizens are not happy. Many netizens may have questions, why do good Chinese companies put their registration places in the Cayman Islands? What about in the Cayman Islands? Is this an intentional tax avoidance?

In fact, the problem is not as simple as everyone thinks. There are many reasons why many companies place their registration place in the Cayman Islands.

Cayman, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands are known as the world's three largest offshore company registration places. These three places have the largest number of offshore company registrations in the world, and the reason why many companies choose their registration places is There are several main reasons for placing it in the Cayman Islands:

1. Convenient listing.

This is one of the main reasons why many companies consider placing their registration place in the Cayman Islands, especially Chinese companies.

Everyone knows that the threshold for listing in China is very high, and the review time is relatively long. Many technology companies and Internet companies simply cannot meet the threshold requirements for domestic listing. The net profit of the current three fiscal years alone is All are positive numbers and the cumulative amount exceeds RMB 30 million. This condition is enough to make many companies retreat, because many Internet companies were in a state of loss when they started, such as JD.com.

At this time, many companies are considering listing in the United States, because the threshold for listing in the United States is much lower than in China. But as a Chinese company, there are many restrictions on listing in the United States. Because domestic regulatory authorities have very strict requirements for Chinese-funded companies to list directly overseas and use the funds raised from their listings, it is not easy for mainland companies to list overseas.

So many companies can only choose to go public in a curved manner, that is, to register overseas, and then set up a subsidiary in Hong Kong or elsewhere to control the domestic company. An overseas company obtains control of domestic assets through acquisitions, equity swaps, etc., and then lists the overseas company on an overseas exchange. The essence is that the shareholders of the domestic company are listed.

After such a wave of operations, Chinese companies can submit overseas listing plans in the name of Cayman Islands companies. In this way, some cumbersome approval procedures of domestic regulatory authorities can be bypassed, thereby improving the efficiency of listing.

The reason why many Chinese companies place their registration places in the Cayman Islands is because companies registered in the Cayman Islands are highly recognized internationally and can be listed on major exchanges such as Hong Kong, the United States, and Singapore.

2. Low cost and low threshold.

In fact, Chinese companies have many choices when registering companies overseas. For example, they can place their registration in Hong Kong, Singapore or other places. However, in the end, the reason why these companies place their registration place in the Cayman Islands is because the Cayman Islands itself It has great advantages. For example, the following conditions are the requirements for registering a company in the Cayman Islands, and the threshold is very low.

(1) Anyone over 18 years old of any nationality can register.

(2) The registered capital only requires 50,000 US dollars, and no capital verification is required.

(3) Generally, when a Cayman exempted company is registered, as long as the company’s business operations are not local, it does not need to pay local taxes.

(4) The shareholder information of the Cayman Islands is very confidential and cannot be obtained by any domestic institution or individual.

(5) The Cayman Islands do not require shareholders’ meetings to be held in Cayman.

(6) A Cayman company only needs one shareholder and one director, and the shareholder and director can be the same person.

(7) Cayman company names can be freely selected, such as international, group, federal, university, and research institute.

(8) Except for registration applications for banking, insurance, military and other purposes, there are no restrictions on the registration of other companies.

(9) You can enjoy the treatment of foreign investment in China, and you can directly invest after successful registration.

3. Legal tax avoidance and tax reduction

Legal tax avoidance is one of the important reasons why many companies place their registration place in the Cayman Islands, because the Cayman Islands has legal provisions that provide for tax exemptions According to the policy, as long as the company's business operations are not local, it does not need to pay local taxes. Therefore, many companies currently use this tax policy to achieve the purpose of tax avoidance.

At present, some European and American companies, such as Coca-Cola, Intel, Oracle and other large companies, have subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, and then transfer their profits to companies registered in the Cayman Islands through a series of complex financial paths. subsidiaries to avoid high U.S. income taxes.

Of course, it is not that easy to achieve tax avoidance by registering a company in the Cayman Islands. Especially for many Chinese technology companies, registering a company in the Cayman Islands does not play a tax avoidance role at all. . Because the actual places of business of these companies are in China, all the taxes that should be paid are paid by China. Before enjoying the exemption from corporate income tax in the Cayman Islands, the income of the companies has already been levied corporate income tax by the Chinese tax authorities.

Are companies registered in the Cayman Islands still considered Chinese companies?

Seeing so many well-known Chinese companies registered in the Cayman Islands, many netizens may have a question. If these companies are registered in the Cayman Islands, are they still Chinese companies?

I can tell you for sure that even if they choose the Cayman Islands for injection, in essence they are still a Chinese company because their main business is in China and they actually control it. People are also controlled by the Chinese. Even if they place their registration overseas and then control domestic subsidiaries through overseas companies, they still cannot escape the essence that they are Chinese companies. And among the world's top 500 companies, whether Alibaba, JD.com or other companies, they are all classified as Chinese companies.