MSA Asia review: company incorporation, payroll outsourcing and Employer of Record in China

The right partner when you want incorporation, payroll and EOR from the same people, in Shanghai.

MSA Asia is a Shanghai accounting and advisory firm, established in 2011, with around 56 staff, four partners working in English, German, Dutch, French and Chinese, and a client list of foreign SMEs that it says runs past 1,500 companies and 500 WFOE registrations. Its offer is deliberately balanced across the three things a foreign company needs in China. Company incorporation covers WFOE, joint venture, representative office and branch registration with guidance on registered capital, Chinese name and personnel, then bank accounts, tax, VAT and fapiao registration, social insurance and housing fund registration and industry licences. Payroll outsourcing covers monthly gross-to-net, IIT, social insurance and housing fund in any Chinese city, filings, annual reconciliation, payments and reimbursements. Employer of Record puts your staff on MSA’s own Shanghai entity in 24 to 48 hours with a dedicated China HR specialist and a planned transition onto your WFOE. All three are priced on its website, which almost nobody else here manages, and accounting, tax and chop custody sit alongside. The caveats are its own inconsistencies: a WFOE licence “in two weeks” on one page and “two to three months” on another, an EOR fee of US$199 on one page and US$800 on another, a founding year given three ways, and a SOC 2 “target” badge rather than a certificate.

Who actually employs your staff: MSA Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

MSA employs EOR staff through its own Shanghai company, MSA Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., from its headquarters on East Beijing Road in Huangpu. The firm lists offices in Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and partner or representative addresses in Macau, Taipei, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Bangalore; its footer names Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore as its own. It is a member of the GGI Global Alliance of accounting firms and states that it does not provide legal services.

MSA also offers labour dispatch, and its own Shanghai payroll guide notes the 10 per cent dispatch cap and the labour bureau’s 2025–26 scrutiny of pass-through EOR structures. Ask which structure your hire sits on and, where dispatch is used, for the licence.

Entity name supplied by the provider; office list from msadvisory.com, read 24 October 2026. Ask for the business licence of the employing company and the dispatch licence where dispatch applies.

Three services, weighted equally: set up, run payroll, employ

MSA’s proposition is that a foreign SME should not need three vendors in China. The incorporation team registers the company and its licences, the payroll team runs salaries, filings and payments in any city, and the EOR team employs staff on MSA’s own entity until the WFOE is ready, with accounting and tax continuing afterwards.

What MSA Asia handles for a Chinese employee or entity

What you actually pay for one Shanghai hire on RMB 30,000 a month

MSA publishes EOR from US$199 per employee per month (its EOR page also says US$800 in one place) and payroll outsourcing from US$19 per employee per month for companies that already have an entity. The example uses the US$199 EOR rate.

Illustrative, Shanghai 2026 rates with the official RMB 37,731 base ceiling. Get the EOR fee confirmed in writing given the two figures on MSA’s site.

If MSA Asia is not the fit

Common questions about MSA Asia in China