First Step: Free Name Reservation Tonight | Generated by AI
Question: My last day at the bank is the last day of this month (July 31). What is the literal first step to execute the company registration?
Answer:
The trigger just fired, so here’s the execution order. The literal first step costs 0 CNY and ~30 minutes tonight:
Step 0 (tonight, free): Name self-declaration on the 一网通 platform.
Log into the 广州市开办企业一网通平台, enter your candidate names, the system auto-checks for duplicates, and once approved the name is locked for 30 days — the whole thing takes about 10 minutes to a day. That 30-day lock is your friend: it lets you reserve the name now while everything else lands after July 31. Practical notes:
- Prepare 3–5 backup names and pre-check them on both the 一网通 platform and the National Enterprise Credit Information system — Guangzhou’s name-collision rate is over 60% — and also check 中国商标网 for trademark conflicts. Since your brand assets are
lzwjava, your blog, and your CLI tools, pick a 字号 you’d also want as a product/domain name, not a throwaway. - Platform: https://scjgj.gz.gov.cn/ywt/ — the official 广州市开办企业一网通 platform, one-network filing with single-window pickup.
Three things that changed since the Zhihu article you read — these matter:
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Registered capital is no longer “just a number.” Under the current rules you must actually pay in the subscribed capital within 5 years of incorporation; recommended amounts are 100K–500K CNY for startups, 500K–1M for tech companies. My earlier “100K–500K” advice now means real money on a 5-year clock. For a solo AI-tools company with a 900K mortgage, set it at 100K–200K CNY, not 500K. You can increase capital later trivially; decreasing (减资) is painful.
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You may not need a supervisor at all. A single-natural-person company (自然人独资) no longer requires a 监事; the supervisor/legal-rep separation rule only applies to multi-person companies under the 2024 Company Law. So the wife-as-监事 dependency I flagged earlier is likely moot if you incorporate as 100% sole shareholder. Confirm on the platform when filing — but this removes a blocker.
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The process is fully online and faster than the article claimed. All materials are uploaded online — no paper, no service-hall visits; the 7-step flow takes 1–3 days total, with identity verification done via face recognition on the 登记注册身份验证 app or the 广州工商 WeChat mini-program, valid for 30 days. Seals are free (公章/财务章/发票章/法人章, carved and police-registered automatically via the platform) — so the agency’s main remaining value is just the virtual address (government-registered cluster addresses run 1,200–3,000 CNY/year) plus bookkeeping.
The timeline mapped to July 31:
| When | Action | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| This week | Name declaration (3–5 candidates) on 一网通; pick a cluster-address provider in your district | 0 |
| This week | Skim your bank contract’s exit/non-compete clauses — being 法人 is public record on 企查查 the day the license issues. If anything is ambiguous, submit the application Aug 1 instead of July; the name lock holds 30 days | 0 |
| Week of Aug 3 | Submit establishment filing: capital 100–200K, tight 经营范围 (software dev + tech services + info consulting — must use standardized entries from 《国民经济行业分类》, no free-text), face-verify, e-sign. License issues in 1–3 days, seals free | ~1,500–2,500 (address, year 1) |
| Within 30 days of license | Tax registration on 广东省电子税务局 — mandatory within 30 days, elect 小规模纳税人, zero-declaration filing applies even with no revenue; sign up bookkeeping agency (~2,000/yr) | ~2,000/yr |
| Aug, book now | Bank basic account: 法人 brings license, seals, ID, articles; 500–1,500 CNY, 1–3 days, some banks do online pre-review — call 2–3 banks this week to compare and get in the queue | 500–1,500 |
Total year-1: roughly 4,000–6,000 CNY. One structural bonus given your exit: once the company and its bank account exist, it can carry your Guangzhou 社保/公积金 contributions after July 31 — which matters for the kids’ schooling and keeps your medical insurance continuous. That alone justifies not dawdling in August.
Also relevant: small-scale taxpayers pay zero VAT on monthly revenue under 100K CNY (300K/quarter), with the 1% rate policy extended through year-end — so your early SaaS/consulting revenue is essentially VAT-free.
So: tonight, open https://scjgj.gz.gov.cn/ywt/, run your 3–5 names through 名称自主申报. Everything else sequences off that 30-day lock.
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