In China, the drafting of the employment contract commits the payroll for its whole duration: the language used, the form adopted and the mandatory particulars are fixed by local law, not by the practice of head office.
Termination is the moment when drafting errors are paid for. Final settlement, notice, severance and exit documents obey local rules that the payroll manager applies every month: it is that person, and not the legal department at head office, who spots a poorly drawn contract. Having the model contract reviewed by the firm that will run the payroll costs little and avoids most disputes.
Data transfer is settled before the first payroll run. The Personal Information Protection Law tightly controls the export of employee data from China: depending on volumes and processing, a company either files a standard contract with the provincial branch of the Cyberspace Administration of China (国家互联网信息办公室), obtains a certification, or undergoes a security assessment. Sending payroll files to a European head office is anything but routine.
The housing provident fund is the other matter to settle in advance. It is an employer charge with no European equivalent, administered locally and kept entirely separate from social insurance.
A recurring confusion of labels compounds all this. Licensed bookkeeping agencies (代理记账公司), audit firms (会计师事务所) and holders of a human resources services licence operate under three different approvals. Only the first may lawfully invoice payroll services.
Vérifier systématiquement l'existence et la validité de l'agrément 代理记账许可证书 sur la plateforme nationale du ministère des Finances : c'est le seul contrôle vraiment discriminant, beaucoup de prestataires se présentant comme comptables sans le détenir. Appellations concurrentes à ne pas confondre : 代理记账公司 (agence de tenue de comptabilité, agrément MoF), 会计师事务所 (cabinet d'expertise comptable/audit, agrément distinct) et 人力资源服务许可证 (licence de services RH, délivrée par le 人社局, requise pour le placement de personnel et le portage salarial mais pas pour la paie). Le recouvrement des cotisations sociales ayant été transféré au fisc en 2019, les attestations fiscales et sociales s'obtiennent désormais au même guichet électronique provincial.
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