In the first 6 months of this year, 7111 legal entities were registered in our country, and the absolute majority of the registered legal entities used the Electronic Registration service.

Media and Communication Center of the Ministry of Taxes has told AZERTAC that according to the analyses conducted, one of the factors influencing this is the simplification of Electronic Registration of legal entities this year.

The number of users of this service is growing rapidly as a result of the created opportunity for e-Registration of a Local Investment Limited Liability Company without an Electronic Signature. Thus, the number of registered legal entities in the first half of the year increased by 18 percent compared to the same period last year, while the share of e-Registration increased from 79.6 percent to 85.7 percent.

As a result of the amendments to the Law ”On state registration and State Register of legal entities", starting from the beginning of this year, the state registration of legal entities, VAT registration and opening of a bank account were carried out in just one procedure.

The need for an Electronic Signature approval of the e-Application for registration has been eliminated, as well as all previously existing procedures for registration have been canceled. Users who use the new service enter the Internet Tax Administration without an Electronic Signature and pass the identification with the FIN code and mobile number in the Electronic Registration system. The information of the Registration Application is entered into the system online and the process of registration of a legal entity is completed by a procedure of Approval of Documents. In the new Electronic Registration system, information on labour contract notifications is automatically sent to the Information System of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population. It is also provided to register the taxpayer for VAT purposes, to issue a certificate-duplicate to open a bank account and to send the application for obtaining a business type certificate to the Certificate Services Center. With the completion of one procedure, 4 more different processes are performed.

According to the new Electronic Registration system, registration documents are sent online only to the taxpayer's Electronic Cabinet, and it is not necessary for entrepreneurs to provide these documents in paper carriers. The registration documents sent to the Electronic Cabinet are encrypted with a special Barcode and they are accepted in the electronic form by all government agencies, banks, notaries, and other organizations as official documents. To help those who use this service, the Electronic Government portal has an appropriate administrative regulation, while the Internet Tax Administration provides the "e-Registration of a Local Investment Limited Liability Company" (without an Electronic Signature) Instruction.

The reform conducted has a positive impact on our positions in the "Doing Business" Report as well. Currently, Azerbaijan ranks 9th among 190 countries on the "Starting a Business" indicator in the "Doing Business 2019". The "Doing Business 2019" Report provides for 3 procedures, 3.5 days and 18 AZN on the “Starting a Business” indicator for Azerbaijan. As a result of these changes, the number of financial records and documents for "Starting a Business" has decreased to zero, and a Local Investment Limited Liability Company is registered online within 0.5 days of one procedure.