How Can We Cut Costs on Hiring a Senior Marketing Person in China? Seeking Your Advice

We are a Bangalore-based biotech company. As part of our expansion plans, we hired a senior marketing person in China with the help of an external consultant in China. We have hired this person through the payroll of other companies in China, for which we have been paying a 15% service fee and an additional 10% tax to the Indian government every month to transfer the amount to China.

We initially considered hiring the person as a consultant, but since 2008, there has been a ban on hiring Chinese individuals as consultants from other countries.

We are actively seeking your suggestions to help us reduce costs.

Thanks & Regards,
Sunil

A few queries to get better clarity.

1. Where is this Chinese Marketing person working or positioned—Bangalore or China?

2. With reference to your statement "...with the help of the external consultant in China. We have hired this person in the payroll of another company in China...": Are the external consultant and the 'other company' the same or different?

3. Are there any specific reasons why the Marketing person was hired as a consultant instead of as an employee?

Regards,
TS

International companies cannot hire Chinese employees as consultants. Hence, we have not hired him as a consultant. We have hired him on the payroll of another company in China, for which we have been paying a 15% service fee. Additionally, we are bearing taxes on both sides, resulting in a higher cost. Therefore, we are exploring alternatives to help us reduce costs.

Regards,
Sunil

I guess you don't have many options. I can see the following:

1. Speak to the Chinese company about them covering the tax bill on their end while you handle it on the Indian end—though I'm not really sure how realistic this could be.

2. Since you are in the biotech sector, can't you look for another nationality consultant who fits the bill—where this issue wouldn't arise?

Another option would be to either wait for members who belong to the infrastructure sector—which I think has a large concentration of Chinese professionals—and figure out how they handle this issue, or tap into the CiteHR database yourself and contact them through private messages. Here's the link I found in my search: https://www.citehr.com/results.php?q...59&submit.y=14

You too can use the research facility at the top of this page to get more refined results to lead you to the right HR persons who can help you out.

All the best.

Regards,
TS

Option 1 is ruled out since it does not comply with statutory financial laws.

Option 2: We have recruited a senior position in China for Sales & Marketing, who has a good understanding of the geography and customers. Hence, he has started generating revenue from month 01. Yes, we will try to connect with members from the infrastructure through LinkedIn.

Cheers,
Sunil