Start up toolkit
Establishing business presence
The form of legal presence in Russia which your business takes influences every aspect of the work that you do. Your choice of legal presence has an impact on the type of deals you are capable of making and the tax consequences of those deals. It affects your financial and tax accounting and reporting. It affects what you are capable of doing as far as customs are concerned, currency control legislation, your ability to employ foreign nationals, the repatriation of income, the application of international treaties and a whole range of other aspects. Therefore, particular attention must be paid to Russian business modeling PRIOR to setting up a legal presence in Russia. You can't afford not to speak to our experts. There are several forms a business run by a foreign investor can take in the Russian Federation. A foreign investor may set up a Russian legal entity in the form of a limited liability company, a joint-stock company (which can be private or public) or a partnership. The remaining alternative is to open either a representative office or branch office of a foreign company in Russia.
You need the following in order to legally register a company:
Real office premises – an actual office where you will be physically located. It is required to find actual office space prior to registration of the company. Registered or legal address may not be used for registration purposes. Residential premises (apartments) can be used in case the General Director of the new company owns or officially rents the premises AND the company does not carry out any production, warehousing, sale of goods activities. The future company has to be physically located at the address that it states in its corporate documents. The authorities check! A candidate for General Director and not a “nominal” one. Foreign citizen can be appointed as a General Director but in order to legally conduct its activities he/she will have to obtain a work permit. Know who will be doing the statutory accounting and tax reporting. The fact of absence of activity or income is irrelevant – submission of the accounting and tax reports is still required.
To get more information on the different types of entities that you can establish in Russia click to Comparison table
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