Company Registration:
In Moldova, 3 types of companies can be registered:
1. Individual Enterprise – IE – for private individuals, citizens of Moldova
2. Limited Liability Company – LLC or abbreviated in Moldovan as SRL
3. Joint-Stock Company – JSC
CJSCs have not been registered in Moldova for some time now.
In Moldova, a company can be registered within 1 to 3 days. The first authority a future businessman contacts is the Public Services Agency (ASP – Agentia Servicii Publice). When applying to this state body, you need to be well prepared. Know specifically what the company will do. Have ready names.
At the ASP, you will need the following list of documents:
– passports of the founders,
– 5 pre-prepared names for your firm or company (we advise you to prepare many more names, as often good, catchy company names are already taken),
– the legal address of the future enterprise (by the way, in Moldova it is not at all necessary for this to be the registered address of one of the founders),
– the necessary amount to pay for the company registration and state fees.
Here, Moldovan legislation rather strangely requires businessmen to deposit money into a temporary account of the future company. The fact is that if there is one founder, the full amount required by law is deposited – the share capital. When there are more founders, the amount can be deposited in installments. First, half of the amount is deposited into the company’s account, then the remaining part of the share capital within six months.
Choosing a Bank
Our firm prefers to cooperate only with a few reliable banks in the Republic of Moldova. These are trustworthy banks that have been successfully operating in Moldova for over 15 years. Unfortunately, we cannot disclose the names of banks that are good from a business perspective on the pages of this website, so as not to offend competitors or startup banks, some of which, by the way, have recently begun to build a good reputation.
To open an account, you must have the amount to contribute to the authorized capital. The authorized capital can also be contributed later. But we recommend doing this immediately.
Registration with the tax inspectorate
Within a few days after the registration of the enterprise, it is automatically registered with the tax inspectorate. In the tax inspectorate’s online office, you need to specify the director and accountant of the already registered firm, as the most unexpected situations and questions may arise.
Registration of enterprises in Moldova. Pitfalls
Unfortunately, when Moldovan legislators concluded that since the institution of residence registration has been abolished in Moldova, they allowed the Registration Chamber not to require founders to provide anything confirming the legal address of the future enterprise. In this body, they will simply tell you that you are responsible for the information provided.
This is where a serious pitfall lies. Having already registered a company at an address where you, for example, simply reside but are not registered, you risk starting all over again, that is, making changes to the company’s charter, and essentially re-registering.
The fact is that during an inspection at the tax inspectorate, you will be required not only to provide documents obtained from the registration chamber, but also a notarized lease agreement or a letter from the owner of the apartment or rented office stating that they allow you to use the address as the legal address of the company.
This is just one example where an entrepreneur, not fully knowing the rules of registration and registration with the tax inspectorate, or the rules of accounting, ends up in a dead-end situation. There are many such examples, and only good lawyers with solid experience in the field of business consulting can handle them.
Ready-made companies
What is a ready-made company? It is an already existing, operating enterprise. Even if the company does nothing, it operates as a subject of tax law. To maintain it for further sale, an accountant and a director are specially hired, who may manage more than one such company. Why hire people and maintain such a company? So that the client has the opportunity to purchase the enterprise in the shortest possible time – one day. The name is one of the most important factors for a client when buying a company. But the most important thing is the speed of re-registration and the types of activities.
A ready-made company is also a guarantee that you will not have to look for a legal address for the future enterprise.
Unfortunately, in Moldova, only a few serious law firms can offer clients a ready-made enterprise. When you buy a ready-made company from unverified individuals, you risk inheriting the company’s huge debts. And even an audit firm will not help you check if everything is clean with the company. Therefore, we only sell companies of our clients, which have been verified by us and all documentation has been maintained by us.
Re-registration of an enterprise
When re-registering an enterprise, many founders face difficulties such as a lack of time to resolve issues that are minor in content but time-consuming. Here, it is always convenient to turn to lawyers who have connections and are able to resolve issues in a shorter period.
Furthermore, mistakes made during re-registration will later affect the state of affairs with the documentation.