The process of importing, distributing and selling luxury goods in China raises further challenges for companies, including a number of difficult questions regarding tax treatment, customs duty, logistics and the transfer of intellectual property.

Customs duty, import VAT and consumption tax can all be charged on luxury goods imported into China. The ability of brands to mark up their goods at dramatic premiums can also prove difficult to explain to tax authorities when the time comes to file income tax returns.

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Having a meaningful footprint in China has become a strategic imperative for multinational companies from around the world. The attraction is China’s seemingly insatiable demand for products, services, capital and technology. George D. Martin, partner and chair of the Faegre & Benson China Practice, sees the current acquisition boom in China as the logical culmination of foreign investment trends that he first observed when practicing in Shanghai in the mid-1990s. Martin expects this M&A trend to continue. But in the years to come, he advises, it won’t be just foreign companies on the buy-side of cross-border M&A deals involving China.

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Successful entrepreneurs in China will tell you that success took longer than they had originally planned. Ex-pat owners of businesses in China who have been slugging away for 5+ years can suddenly find themselves on a steep growth curve. Many of these ‘overnight success stories’ that were years in the making end up leaving their owners hostages to the business. The founders are cash-poor while the business gets bigger and richer.

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China has become a synonym for future business growth. It is the business nirvana of the 21st century. It is the place to be. Companies are scrambling to get a share of the action. Not a day passes without some company making an announcement of an investment in their future which involves China.

Their reason for this scramble is the expectation of gaining vast increases in shareholder value. Reported performance would suggest that these expectations are difficult to realise.

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Luxury retailing in China clearly presents tremendous opportunities, but also risks and challenges. In addition to heightening competition as is common among emerging markets, the most significant and relevant of challenges for luxury brands concern Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regulations, the time frame for a return on investment, low luxury brand awareness, booming Chinese tourism and limited retail infrastructure.

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