Ukrainian Agency for Law and Investments
tel. (+380 44) 599-54-71
fax: (+380 44) 494-08-46
e-mail: info@
Postal address:
7, Tatarska str., k. 79, Kiev, 04107, Ukraine
Forms of business entities in Ukraine
Ukrainian legislation foresees the following forms of business companies in Ukraine: joint stock companies (open and closed), limited liability companies, additional liability companies, full liability companies and differentiated liability companies.
Differences in the forms of companies are set by the Law of Ukraine «On Commercial Companies». Also, the Commercial code of Ukraine foresees such form of a company as “private company”.
Besides that, self employed natural persons may be registered in Ukraine as “natural person-entrepreneur” without the registration of legal entity (company). Natural person-entrepreneur may be an employer and hire employees.
Limited liability company and joint stock company are the most often used forms of companies in Ukraine. “Natural person-entrepreneur” is also widely used form of registration of entrepreneurial activity in Ukraine. This status may be acquired both by Ukrainian and foreign citizens.
According to the Ukrainian legislation a limited liability company may as well be established by a single founder (both by natural person and legal entity).
Representative office of a foreign company in Ukraine
Representative office of a foreign company status is defined by the Law of Ukraine “On foreign economic activity” and Order of the Ministry of economy of Ukraine, which regulates the order of registration of such representatives.
According to the above mentioned documents, a representative office of a foreign legal entity is an establishment or a person, which represents the interests of the foreign legal entity and has the proper authority for this activity.
Such representative office is not a separate legal entity and does not hold independent commercial activity. In all cases it acts in the name and on behalf of the foreign company (other foreign establishment), mentioned in the certificate of registration of the representative office and acts according to the legislation of Ukraine.
General Manager of the representative office acts on the grounds of Power of Attorney given by the foreign company. This Power of Attorney has to be duly notarized and legalized in the country, where the represented company is located.
Before ordering a company registration service, we recommend you to prepare answers for the following 8 questions:
1. What form of ownership you choose for your company in Ukraine? Who will be the owner of the shares of the company and in what proportions?
2. What amount you are going to invest into the statute capital of your company? What kind of property will be invested (financial assets, real estate, property rights, movables, industrial equipment, etc.)? Please, draw your attention that Ukrainian legislation sets the minimum amount of the statute capital at the level of 100 minimal salaries for the day of statutory capital formation.
3. What will be the name of the company? Prepare several names, just in case. According to Ukrainian legislation you can book the name of your future company for a period of 2 months (limited liability company) or 9 months (joint stock company).
4. Do the future owner(s) of the company have Ukrainian tax identification numbers ? (if they are natural persons).
5. In what district of the city the company will be registered? Do you have any ideas regarding office location of the future company, its official address, what phone number you can indicate in the company registration documents?
6. Determine up to 6 main kinds of activity of your future company.
7. Define the tax system which your company will use (common basis of profit taxation, VAT payer, profit tax payer but not a VAT payer, payer of a single tax (10% of profit or 6% of profit +VAT payer)).
8. Who will be the director of he future company? If you are going to appoint a foreign citizen at the position of the company director, this company has to obtain an employment permit for this person prior to appointment . Appointing a foreign citizen at the position of director without such permit is illegal. Due to the fact that prior to the company registration it is obligatory to submit data regarding the director of this company, you should temporarily appoint a Ukrainian citizen to this position. If you are sure that the established company must be governed by a foreign citizen (chosen by you), you can replace the first Ukrainian director with this person after obtaining an employment permit for him. This decision is formed by the following protocol of General meeting of the company founders.
If you feel difficulties in answering any of these questions or you need a consultation of a specialist to help you with answering, please, contact us and get a free consultation on this matter.
Basing on practice of our work we can affirm that the process of company registration in Ukraine is accompanied with many nuances, but good experts will help you find the way out of them. The price of our services related to the registration of a company in Kiev starts from 2000 grivnas (Registration of representative office – 18 000 grivnas). This price includes the obligatory state duties and the costs of the company stamp production. Final price of this service also depends on how much founders will establish this company, is there a need of preparation of Power of Attorney, its legalization, etc.
It is recommended that you apply to our Agency with a separate inquiry regarding company registration. After examination of your situation we will give you the list of the possible costs and full description of our actions related to the registration.