Belgium

Ease of Doing Business in

Belgium

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for Belgium. The first table lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 185 economies) and the rankings by each topic. It also lists the economy's distance to frontier (DTF)** measure. The rest of the tables summarize the key indicators for each topic and benchmark against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

Economy Overview

Select All
Economy Summary
Starting a Business
Dealing with Construction Permits
Getting Electricity
Registering Property
Getting Credit
Protecting Investors
Paying Taxes
Trading Across Borders
Enforcing Contracts
Resolving Insolvency
Region OECD high income
Income Category High income
Population 11,008,000
GNI Per Capita (US$) 46,160
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
33 31 down -2

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
75.0 74.8 down 0.2
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 44 36 up -8
Dealing with Construction Permits 57 55 up -2
Getting Electricity 82 84 up 2
Registering Property 176 176 No change
Getting Credit 70 67 up -3
Protecting Investors 19 17 up -2
Paying Taxes 75 72 up -3
Trading Across Borders 29 30 up 1
Enforcing Contracts 18 19 up 1
Resolving Insolvency 7 8 up 1

Economy Profile

1320.4 KB pdf file

Download Now

Doing Business Resources

Doing Business law library Law Library

Search for business laws and regulations in Belgium

 Contributors

See who contributed to Doing Business 2013

 Get all Data

See historical data sets and trends

Additional Topic

Additional Data

Related Websites

Starting a Business

Info

The challenges of launching a business are shown below. Included are: the number of steps entrepreneurs can expect to go through to launch, the time it takes on average, and the cost and minimum capital required as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita.

DB 2013 Rank 44 DB 2012 Rank 36 Change in Rank down-8
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 94.3 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 94.3 Improvement in DTF** (% points) 0.0
YearNew business densityNumber of new limited liability companies
2011 3.0021,624
Indicator Belgium OECD high income OECD

The total number of procedures required to register a firm. A procedure is defined as any interaction of the company founders with external parties (for example, government agencies, lawyers, auditors or notaries).

View methodology Procedures (number)
3 -- 5

The total number of days required to register a firm. The measure captures the median duration that incorporation lawyers indicate is necessary to complete a procedure with minimum follow-up with government agencies and no extra payments.

View methodology Time (days)
4 -- 12

Cost is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita. It includes all official fees and fees for legal or professional services if such services are required by law.

View methodology Cost (% of income per capita)
5.2 -- 4.5

The amount that the entrepreneur needs to deposit in a bank or with a notary before registration and up to 3 months following incorporation and is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita.

View methodology Paid-in Min. Capital (% of income per capita)
18.2 -- 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Deposit at least 20% of the initial capital with a Belgian credit institution and obtain a standard certification confirming that the amount is held in a blocked “capital” account 1 day no charge
2 Deposit a financial plan with the notary, sign the deed of incorporation and the by-laws in the presence of a notary, who authenticates the documents and registers the deed of incorporation 1 day fixed registration duty of EUR 25 + publication cost of EUR 237.4 + notarial fees around EUR 1,064 + notary's various costs (including file and administrative costs) of about EUR 300 = approximately EUR 1,626 (VAT excluded)
3 Register with the Register of Legal Entities, VAT, and social security at a centralized company docket (guichet-entreprises / ondernemingsloket) and obtain a company number 2 days (1 day for commercial registration, 1 day for social security and VAT) EUR 79 (registration fee) + EUR 50 (VAT registration)

** The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the "frontier," which represents the highest performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies included in Doing Business since each indicator was included in Doing Business. An economy’s distance to frontier is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Read more...

Explore Economy Data

Explore Economy Data


 - OR -

OTHER OPTIONS

Close