Starting and running a business in Ukraine, a nation with a notoriously horrible business environment, is expected to become a bit easier with the recent passage of several laws designed to simplify procedures and eliminate the need for contact with potentially corrupt officials.
Starting and running a business in Ukraine, a nation with a notoriously horrible business environment, is expected to become a bit easier with the recent passage of several laws designed to simplify procedures and eliminate the need for contact with potentially corrupt officials.
On Aug. 14, Ukrainian legal entities and individual entrepreneurs will be able to register electronically. The measure is designed to bring transparency to business registration procedures and increase guarantees related to protecting ownership rights, Kyiv-based law firm Frishberg & Partners said.
The measure also eliminates direct contact between applicants and state registrars. However, foreign founders of local companies will still have to submit original documents with the state registrar, the law firm presumes.
The requirements for certain licenses were eliminated for travel agencies, international transport agents, cartographers, topographers, geologists and others. Altogether, licenses aren’t required for 23 types of economic activities, decreasing activities subject to licensing to 42 from 66.
Charter capital of newly created companies can now be formed within one year of company registration, rather than prior to registration as before.
As of May, all types of business entities no longer have to obtain state registration certificates. Instead, records from the state registrar of enterprises and organizations will now be the sole means of confirming a business entity’s valid state registration.
Frishberg & Partners noted that the legal entities or individual entrepreneurs that were registered and established before July 1, 2004, will have to submit their registration cards to the state registrar by March 2, 2012, in order to include their corresponding records into the unified state registrar.
Probably the two most archaic administrative requirements for businesses have been abolished. Business entities don’t have to obtain special permits from the Interior Ministry for producing a company seal. The time-saving measure means legal entities don’t have to spend about one week to obtain the permit.
“This is yet another step to decrease direct contact with local authorities and curb potential corruption for those newly registered companies, which urgently require a corporate seal in an accelerated manner,” Frishberg & Partners said.
Businesses also as of June don’t have to submit detailed records of their employees’ business trips to tax authorities. In the past, the practice led to misunderstandings between employers and the tax officials regarding business trip expenses.
The company director’s internal order for business trips now serves as confirmation of an employee’s business trip.
A model charter can now be used to set up a company instead of individually crafting a similar document.
According to law, the model charter is a standard document approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, law firm CMS Cameron McKenna wrote on June 29.
Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
