明佣和暗佣

Commission, also known as a commission fee, can be divided into open commission and hidden commission.

Open commission, also known as a disclosed commission, refers to the commission amount that is openly stated in the relevant documents, such as the sales contract, letter of credit, or invoice. It is usually denoted by the letter "C" after the trade term, such as "CIF C5% Hong Kong". The buyer will directly deduct the commission fee from the payment to the seller.

Hidden commission, also known as an undisclosed commission, refers to the commission fee that is not openly stated in the price condition, sales contract or invoice. The commission fee is paid by the seller to the intermediary company secretly, and its amount is usually not shown in the related documents. The seller will pay the commission fee separately to the intermediary after receiving the payment from the buyer.

In accounting, open commission should be recorded as a reduction of sales revenue, and hidden commission should be recorded as an expense that reduces the net income of the exporter.

There are two ways to pay hidden commission: (1) negotiable commission - the bank will deduct the commission fee from the total sales revenue when exchanging currencies and pay it to the intermediary company; (2) remittance commission - the exporter will buy foreign currencies from the bank after the exchange and make an additional payment to the intermediary company.