The South American country is rarely used as a “tax haven”. At the same time, Ecuador’s fiscal system is based on direct action rules, so there are not many amendments to any government resolution. At the same time, tax payments are comparatively low – VAT is 12%, and the upper limit of the progressive scale of income tax corresponds to the lower limit in Sweden – 30%.
To say that Ecuador is offshore would be wrong. This is a country with a favorable fiscal burden, although not widely known to the most of businessmen, which is caused by relatively small incomes of the population, due to which the prestige of the jurisdiction and the number of various financial and banking institutions located there decrease. Profits of companies of any form of ownership registered in the country are subject to income tax at a uniform rate of 25%. Accordingly, before establishing a company in Ecuador, you should closely study the local market, and the employees of “Prifinance” will help you in this.
Available forms of doing business
Registration of a company in Ecuador is possible in the following forms of business entities:
- LLC. The main legislative requirement – at least half of the authorized capital should be contributed at the start-up stage of the business. The minimum capital is $ 400. In Ecuador, at the beginning of XXI century, the local currency was abolished and, instead of it, the US dollar is used in money circulation.
- Joint company. Such business is established in the form of a partnership by residents and non-residents. The advantage of this form of entrepreneurship lies in the greatest tax benefits, as well as the relatively low riskiness of investments. The disadvantage is that not every business can find a competent local businessman, because the economically active population of the country is less than 10 million people.
- Collective enterprise. To establish such company at least two founders are required. It is distinguished from the joint company by the fact that an absence of a resident in the list of founders is allowed.
- Individual enterprise. In this case the businessman can act as a founder, and an employee of the company. Among the advantages – in Ecuador you can get a tax deduction if at least 15% of the profit for the reporting period will be distributed among the employees of the enterprise, which in these circumstances means a reduction of fiscal costs for the entrepreneur.
- Representation of a foreign company. The drawback is in the high minimum amount of the authorized capital, which is 2 thousand dollars. It is easier and cheaper for an entrepreneur to open an LLC or an individual enterprise.
- A simple limited partnership. For such a partnership, a different status of founders is typical. Some of them will be personally responsible for debts, while the others will have a limited responsibility. Accordingly, the degree of its influence on the business depends on the status of the founder.
- Holding companies and corporations – enterprises and their groups, which shares are circulated on a free sale.
The opening of the company in Ecuador is a promising direction for investing in an unpredictable world.
Specialists of “Prifinance” will help you to prepare a package of documentation and carry out all the necessary procedures for a company registration in Ecuador. We also provide consulting services and accompany business at all stages of the activity.