Open a representative office in Belarus
Opening of a foreign representative office in Belarus
Opening representative offices of foreign organizations in the Republic of Belarus is one of the main specialties of our law office. With the help of our lawyers and advocates, a large number of foreign organizations came to the territory of the Republic of Belarus, whose representative offices were successfully and quickly registered by our specialists.
Representative offices of foreign organizations are opened on the territory of a country to represent their interests. Opening such an office is a process that requires deep knowledge of the law and certain practices for registering representative offices.
A representative office of a foreign organization in the Republic of Belarus is a separate division of a company that is geographically located on its territory. It is not a legal entity, and is primarily intended to protect and represent the interests of the parent foreign organization on the territory of Belarus. The name of a representative office must contain an indication of the foreign organization that opened it. As of the beginning of 2019, more than 120 representative offices of various foreign organizations have been opened in Belarus.
A representative office can be opened by almost any organization: commercial and non-commercial, as well as educational institutions. The main importance is the very purpose of opening a representative office – it must carry out socially useful activities and cannot carry out commercial ones.
Purposes of representative offices formation in Belarus
For representative offices of non-profit organizations the list of purposes is as follows:
– social support of the population, including the low-income, unemployed and other persons;
– preparing the population for the prevention of accidents, catastrophes and natural disasters, assistance to victims of social oppression, conflicts, repression, etc.;
– promotion of peace, friendship and harmony among peoples, and other socially beneficial activities;
– environmental protection;
– protection of historical, cultural and natural heritage;
– implementation of international cooperation in the field of education (representative offices of foreign educational institutions).
For representative offices of a commercial foreign organization the following purposes may be set:
– assistance in the implementation of international agreements;
– research of the markets of goods and services in Belarus and the opportunities for investment;
– ticket sales and seat reservations for transport companies;
Step-by-step plan how to open a representative office in Belarus
To open a representative office in the Republic of Belarus, you must:
- Receive a permit to open a representative office in the regional Executive Committee or Minsk City Executive Committee at the place of the office’s intended location (hereinafter the Executive Committee). That is equated to the registration of a representative office in Belarus;
- Register with government agencies and organizations:
- in the tax authority – within 10 days from the date of receipt of the permit;
- in the social protection fund body;
- register with Belarusian Republican Unitary Insurance Company (BRUIC) «Belgosstrakh» as a policyholder within 1 month from the date of receipt of the permit;
- Submit information to the Executive Committee on registration in the above-mentioned bodies, as well as written information about the staff schedule and contact information within one month from the date of receipt of the permit;
- Open a bank account.
In order to receive an opening permit, the following documents are submitted to the Executive Committee:
- application;
- legalized extract from the state commercial register or other equivalent confirmation of the legal status of the organization;
- regulation on the representative office approved by the foreign entity that contains basic information about the former;
- programme of activities (if the organization is non-profit). It should contain a set of activities, deadlines and resources for their implementation;
- powers of attorney (notarized) both for the head of the representative office and the person authorized to open it;
- documents confirming the payment of state fee.
Documents drawn up in a foreign language must be duly translated and notarized.
The review period is generally 30 days, and can be extended to 2 months if it is necessary to make a request to other state agencies. After that, the opening of a representative office in Belarus is considered completed.
For a representative office opening in Belarus, there is a state fee of 65 basic units for each year the permit is valid; the established reduced state fee for representative offices of non-profit foreign organizations is 20 basic units (1 basic unit from January 1, 2018 is set at 25.5 Belarusian rubles ($12.7 or 11€)).
The validity period of the permit is three years, and it can be extended by submitting an application and a document confirming the payment of state fee; the review period is 10 days.
A representative office of a foreign organization is considered open and can carry out activities starting from the date the permit to open it was issued.
Employment in a representative office
Employment in representative offices of foreign organizations is carried out within the framework of Belarusian legislation.
A representative office is managed through a representative office head appointed by the foreign organization who is acting on the basis of a power of attorney and can simultaneously be the head of the foreign organization. In this case, a power of attorney is not required when submitting documents for obtaining a permit.
Established requirements for the number of foreign citizen employees of a representative office is no more than five people, including the head. Each foreign employee must have a separate work permit.
If an employment agreement with a foreign citizen employee of a representative office was concluded in Belarus, the Belarusian law applies to it. A representative office has the right to attract Belarusian citizens-employees under employment agreements (contracts) and civil law agreements, including contractor agreements.
Thus, foreign organizations can carry out non-profit activities on the territory of Belarus through a representative office, while the process of establishing a representative office is clearly regulated by law, which greatly simplifies the process.
Our employees provide the following legal assistance when opening a foreign representative office:
- consultations on any issues related to opening representative offices of foreign organizations on the territory of the Republic of Belarus;
- preparation of the necessary documents;
- representation of interests in state bodies related to the opening and current activities;
- preparation and detailed study оf the Regulation on representative offices;
- submission of all documents to the registration authorities of the Republic of Belarus;
- registration of the established representative office with tax and social protection authorities.
Why you should choose us
– representative office formation is one of the main specializations of our law office;
– English-speaking attorneys;
– Within last 5 years we helped to register more than 25 representative offices in Belarus;
– We have only experienced lawyers and advocates: some of our lawyers have more than 20 years of experience in the field;
– High level of confidentiality;
– Fair pricing policy: we always make even more than we agreed!
How to find and contact us
If you decided to register a representative office in Belarus will be glad to help you.
Our contacts you can find here.
Also here is the office mobile number (Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp): +37529 357 03 55.