ID Exchange of Taiwan
Independent directors and a fully independent audit committee are now mandatory for every listed company, with a nine-year cap — on the board population that governs the world's semiconductor supply chain.
Taiwan completed a phased reform that made independent directors, and an audit committee composed entirely of them, compulsory across the whole listed population rather than at the largest companies only. Independent directors are limited to three consecutive three-year terms. The result is a market with a large number of genuinely independent seats, a hard refresh cycle, and — uniquely — boards that oversee the concentration risk the rest of the world's technology sector depends on.
- ~1,800
- Companies listed on TWSE and TPEx
- 2 or 1/5
- Independent directors required, whichever is greater
- 9 years
- Three consecutive three-year terms, then the seat must change hands
Can a foreign director sit on a board here?
No nationality or residency test applies to a director. Language and the pace of technology-sector board work are the practical constraints.
- Residency test
- None.
- Nationality test
- None.
- Work authorisation
- A non-resident independent director attending board meetings does not require a work permit. Executive and resident roles do, under the Employment Service Act.
- Board language
- Board papers are commonly in Mandarin, though interpretation is provided at internationally exposed technology issuers.
- Time commitment
- Typically 6–12 board meetings a year plus audit-committee cycles; Taiwanese boards meet frequently and audit committees more so.
What you have to do
The appointment steps, in order.
- 1Nomination under the candidate-nomination system, which listed companies are required to use, with the shareholding and qualification particulars filed in advance
- 2Election by shareholders, with independent directors elected under the candidate-nomination system
- 3Company registration of the appointment with the Ministry of Economic Affairs
- 4Filing of the independence declaration and the qualification evidence required by the FSC regulations
What actually gets in the way
- The candidate-nomination system runs to a filing deadline before the shareholders' meeting; missing it excludes a candidate for a year
- Board papers are commonly in Mandarin, though interpretation is provided at internationally exposed technology issuers
- The nine-year cap makes a Taiwanese seat a defined-horizon commitment
- Semiconductor and defence-adjacent issuers may raise export-control and national-security considerations for a foreign appointee
Board composition
What Taiwan requires of a board.
Each requirement is stated as arithmetic against the instrument that creates it, with who it binds. Nothing here is characterised as compliance or non-compliance — that is a legal conclusion about a specific company, and it is not ours to draw.
| Requirement | Threshold | Basis | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Independent directors | At least two, and not fewer than one fifth of the board | Securities and Exchange Act art. 14-2 | Listed companies |
| Audit committee | Composed entirely of independent directors, at least three members, one with accounting or financial expertise | Securities and Exchange Act art. 14-4 | Listed companies |
| Independent director tenure | Three consecutive terms | Securities and Exchange Act art. 14-2 | Listed companies |
| Board diversity | A published diversity policy with disclosure of gender representation | TWSE / TPEx governance rules | Listed companies |
Independence and tenure
How long you may serve, and what ends it.
- Tenure cap
- Three consecutive three-year terms — nine years, after which the seat must change hands.
- Cooling-off
- Independence is lost by employment with the company or an affiliate, and by defined shareholding and professional-service relationships, within the periods set out in the FSC regulations.
Other tests
- Holding shares above the prescribed threshold, personally or through related parties
- Providing commercial, legal, financial or accounting services to the company or an affiliate
- Being a spouse or relative within the second degree of a director, supervisor or manager
- Being a director, supervisor or employee of a specified related company
What a seat pays
TWD 1m – 3m a year for an independent director of a listed company, with the largest technology and financial groups above that range.
- Where this comes from
- Director remuneration is disclosed in the annual report, and the articles set the basis on which directors share in profits.
- Committee uplift
- Audit-committee members carry a modest premium; Taiwanese fees are low relative to the size of the companies.
- Tax
- Directors' remuneration from a Taiwanese company is Taiwan-source income with withholding for non-residents.
The instruments this page relies on
Securities and Exchange Act · art. 14-2
Requires listed companies to appoint independent directors — at least two, and not fewer than one fifth of the board — and limits an independent director to three consecutive terms.
Financial Supervisory Commission
Securities and Exchange Act · art. 14-4
Requires an audit committee composed entirely of independent directors, with at least three members, at least one of whom has accounting or financial expertise. The audit committee replaces the supervisors under the older model.
Financial Supervisory Commission
Company Act
Governs company formation and director duties. Directors owe a duty of loyalty and the duty of care of a good administrator, and there is no nationality requirement for a director.
Ministry of Economic Affairs
TWSE / TPEx Corporate Governance Best Practice Principles and listing rules
Require board diversity policies and disclosure, including gender representation, and set expectations on board evaluation, succession and sustainability oversight.
TWSE and TPEx
Diversity requirements
Stated as the rule states it — quota, target or disclosure obligation.
- TWSE and TPEx rules require listed companies to adopt and disclose a board diversity policy, including gender representation, with expectations tightened progressively through the FSC's governance roadmap.
- There is no percentage quota; the exchanges publish comparative data and the FSC uses disclosure and the corporate-governance evaluation to drive change.
How this regime map is maintained
Every requirement on this page is cited to the instrument that creates it, and the review date states when a person last checked it against the primary source. Nothing here is legal advice: rules change, and transitional provisions frequently apply. Verify against the primary instrument before you rely on it.
This regime map was last reviewed against primary sources in September 2026.
The demand thesis
Why seats open in Taiwan — and how an outsider reaches one.
This section is our reading of the market, not a statement of law. It is separated from the rules above for exactly that reason.
Why seats open
- The nine-year cap applies across roughly 1,800 listed companies, producing the largest scheduled independent-director turnover in Asia by count.
- The all-independent audit committee is mandatory market-wide, and the accounting-or-financial-expertise requirement is a specific credential many boards cannot fill internally.
- Supply-chain concentration, export controls and geopolitical risk have become board-level questions that no incumbent director governed a decade ago.
- Family-controlled technology groups are professionalising boards under pressure from international institutional shareholders.
How you get in
- Audit-committee seats requiring the accounting or financial expertise the statute names
- Technology and semiconductor issuers with international customer bases seeking directors who understand their end markets
- Taiwanese holding companies of groups with substantial overseas operations
- TPEx-listed issuers, where boards are smaller and a first foreign appointment is a lighter decision
What this market is short of
- Professional accounting qualification
- Chaired an audit committee
- CISO or board-level cyber accountability
Most receptive sectors
Live mandates
No mandates open in Taiwan right now.
Register your interest and you are matched against this market's briefs as they open — statutory, interim and advisory alike.
Mobility corridors
Where board experience travels, into and out of Taiwan.
A corridor is a directional pair of markets between which experience is genuinely legible — and every one of them carries a friction, because a corridor with nothing to bridge would be a corridor nobody had thought about.
Into Taiwan — where its boards recruit from
Deeply integrated electronics and precision-manufacturing supply chains, comparable board cultures, and a shared exposure to the same customer base and the same geopolitical risk.
Friction — Taiwan's candidate-nomination system runs to a filing deadline months before the shareholders' meeting, which has no Japanese equivalent and excludes late candidates entirely.
Questions
Taiwan, answered directly.
Do all Taiwanese listed companies need independent directors?
Yes. What was once a requirement for the largest issuers was phased across the whole listed population, so every TWSE and TPEx listed company must have at least two independent directors constituting not fewer than one fifth of the board, and an audit committee composed entirely of independent directors.
How long can a Taiwanese independent director serve?
Three consecutive three-year terms — nine years. It is a statutory limit under article 14-2 of the Securities and Exchange Act, so the seat changes hands on a known schedule.
How does the candidate nomination system work?
Listed companies must use it for director elections. Candidates are nominated and their particulars filed with the company before a deadline that falls well ahead of the shareholders' meeting; only listed candidates may be elected. Missing the filing window excludes a candidate for a full year regardless of merit.
ID Exchange of Taiwan
Is Taiwan actually one of your markets?
The mobility index scores it against your own record across four named components — corridor strength, legal openness, what this market is short of, and the language its boards work in — and tells you plainly when the answer is no.