Russian companies, as well as branches and representative offices of foreign companies in Russia, must be registered with several authorities. Companies must be registered with the state registration authority (currently the tax authorities) which take care of state registration and registration for tax purposes, with the state statistic committee and with three social funds. Branches and representative offices must be registered with the tax authorities and accredited (see above), as well as registered with the state statistic committee and with the three separate social funds. In St. Petersburg registration is done through the Unified Registration Center which registers the company in all necessary establishments/with all necessary authorities.
The entire registration process is rather time-consuming. In the preliminary phase, significant time is needed to gather and draft the documents to be filed with the competent authorities (notarized and apostilled corporate documents of the foreign company, constitution documents of the newly created Russian company or business, etc.). As far as the registration itself is concerned, the average registration of a Russian legal entity takes approximately three to five weeks from the date of filing the necessary documents with the authorities, but can take longer. The average time necessary for the registration of a branch or a representative office is approximately five weeks from the date of filing the necessary documents with the accreditation body - Unified Registration Center.
Additional steps are necessary for Russian companies, branches, and representative offices to be fully operational, e.g. opening of bank accounts, the creation of a corporate seal, registration of the issuance of shares (for JSCs only) with the securities authorities, etc.
It is possible to establish the company using own resources and staff, but in order to optimize and speed up the process it is strongly advised to use the services of consulting, law or special registration companies.
Available forms*:
Please find below standard forms used for registration.
- Application form for state registration of the legal entities (Russian language)
Russian name: Заявление о государственной регистрации юридических лиц
Download form: Р11001 - Application form for state registration of the physical person as an individual entrepreneur (Russian language)
Russian name:Заявление о государственной регистрации физического лица в качестве индивидуального предпринимателя
Download form: Р21001
* Important note: Application forms are current as of 01.01.2007. Before any use of these forms, please check if they are still valid and make sure that you obtain legal advice.
Contacts
- Federal Tax Service
- Administration of Federal Tax Service in St. Petersburg
- Administration of Federal Tax Service in St. Petersburg
Unified Registration Center at Interdistrict Tax Inspection #15
ul. Professora Popova, 39, St. Petersburg 197376, Russia
Tel.: (812) 335 14 03, 335 14 00
Fax: (812) 335 14 02
