Company Seals in Taiwan: The Big Chop, the Small Chop, and Why Both Matter

While Singapore and Hong Kong quietly retired their seal requirements, Taiwan kept the chop at the center of corporate life. If you incorporate or do business in Taiwan, you will use seals constantly — and which seal you use matters.

The difference from Hong Kong or Singapore is not one of degree. In those jurisdictions the stamp is a convention layered on top of a signature-based system. In Taiwan the chop is wired into the registration machinery itself: the impression is filed with the authorities, and the filed specimen is what gets compared. That makes the chop an operational dependency rather than a nicety.

The two-chop system: 大小章

Taiwanese practice revolves around a pair of seals used together, commonly called the big chop and small chop (大小章):

Company chop (公司大章) — usually square, carrying the full registered company name. It represents the company itself.
Representative chop (負責人小章) — smaller, usually square, carrying the name of the responsible person (the registered representative). It represents the person authorized to act.

Contracts, bank forms, government filings and even routine paperwork typically require both chops side by side. One without the other is often rejected.

The logic is worth internalising because it explains most of the rejections newcomers hit: the big chop says which company, the small chop says which authorised human. A document with only the company chop has not identified who acted; a document with only the representative chop has not identified the entity. Banks in particular treat the pair as a unit — the mandate on file is the combination, not either chop alone.

Registration and the seal certificate

The chop impressions are filed when the company registers, and the specimen on file is what banks and agencies compare against. Companies can also register seals with local authorities and obtain a seal certificate (印鑑證明) — a document certifying that a given impression matches the registered specimen, frequently required for real-estate transactions and major filings. Because the registered impression must match exactly, companies guard these chops carefully and replace them only through a formal re-registration.

"Match exactly" is meant literally, and it has practical consequences:

A worn or chipped chop that no longer produces a clean impression is a problem, not a cosmetic issue. Replacing it means re-filing.
Re-carving a "identical" chop is not identical. Hand-carving variation is enough to fail a comparison.
If the responsible person changes, the small chop changes and the filing must follow. Companies that miss this discover it at the bank counter.

Keep the physical chops and any change-of-specimen paperwork together, and treat a chop replacement as a scheduled administrative project rather than an errand.

Design conventions

The company chop is typically square, in seal-script or standard characters, red ink, reading the full registered name — structurally similar to the square seal layout, but with Traditional Chinese text.
The representative chop is a smaller square with the person's name, comparable to a personal name seal.
Round company seals in the mainland style also appear, especially for internal or marketing use — see the Chinese company seal template for that structure.

You can reproduce either layout in the online seal generator for mock-ups, internal documents and design proofs, and place them on digital paperwork with the PDF stamping tool — including the cross-page perforated style (騎縫章) used on multi-page contracts, covered by the perforated seal template.

Practical layout notes

Taiwanese registered names are often long — they typically carry an industry descriptor plus 股份有限公司 or 有限公司. On a square chop the name is usually set in vertical columns read right to left, which handles length better than a single arc would. If you are producing a proof, set the columns first and the size second; shrinking type to force a name onto a small chop is what produces impressions that fill in solid when inked.

For the small chop, two or three characters at 15–20mm is the norm. Seal script looks traditional but reduces legibility at that size; standard characters are the safer choice when a clerk needs to read the name.

Electronic signatures in Taiwan

Taiwan's Electronic Signatures Act was substantially revised in 2024, strengthening the standing of electronic documents and signatures and clarifying that a signature requirement can generally be met electronically when both parties agree. Adoption is growing in commerce, but banks, land registries and many government processes still run on physical chops and the registered-specimen system. In short: e-signatures are legally viable, chops remain operationally unavoidable.

The pragmatic split most Taiwanese companies land on: e-signature for commercial agreements with counterparties who accept it, physical 大小章 for anything touching a bank, a land registry, a court or a government filing. A chop image on a PDF sits in neither category — it is a presentation device, useful for invoices and internal routing, and not a substitute for either mechanism.

FAQ

Are both chops always required? For banking, government filings and formal contracts, expect to need both. Some routine commercial documents accept the company chop alone — follow the counterparty's requirements.

Can a foreign company sign instead of chopping? Foreign entities generally execute by signature, and Taiwanese counterparties accept this; the two-chop convention applies to locally registered companies.

Does a chop image on a PDF equal the real chop? No — the registered specimen system means physical impressions get compared against filed records. An image is fine for proofs and internal flows; see are image seals legally valid?.

What happens if we lose the company chop? Report it and go through the formal replacement and re-registration process. Do not simply carve a replacement and carry on — the new impression will not match the filed specimen.

Is the representative chop the same as the person's personal seal? It is a chop in that person's name used in their company capacity. Many people keep it separate from the personal 印鑑 they use for their own affairs, which is the safer practice.

Do we need a 騎縫章 on multi-page contracts? It is conventional rather than mandatory, and it does real work: stamping across the page edges makes page substitution detectable. Common on contracts, ledgers and any bound document of consequence.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Verify current requirements with the Ministry of Economic Affairs or a qualified professional.