Belize

Ease of Doing Business in

Belize

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for Belize. 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

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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 Latin America & Caribbean
Income Category Lower middle income
Population 356,600
GNI Per Capita (US$) 3,690
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
105 106 down 1

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
61.5 61.4 down 0.1
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 158 154 up -4
Dealing with Construction Permits 21 18 up -3
Getting Electricity 58 54 up -4
Registering Property 136 134 up -2
Getting Credit 129 127 up -2
Protecting Investors 128 124 up -4
Paying Taxes 45 46 up 1
Trading Across Borders 102 114 up 12
Enforcing Contracts 169 169 No change
Resolving Insolvency 30 31 up 1

Economy Profile

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Starting a Business

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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 158 DB 2012 Rank 154 Change in Rank down-4
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 70.6 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 70.7 Improvement in DTF** (% points) down-0.1
YearNew business densityNumber of new limited liability companies
2011 4.54999
Indicator Belize Latin America & Caribbean 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)
9 9 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)
44 53 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)
51.9 33.7 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)
0.0 3.7 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Conduct a name search at the Companies’ Registry 1 day no charge
2 Register company statutes and memorandum and articles of association at the Companies’ Registry 2 days BZD 500 for the certificate of incorporation + BZD 10 filing fee, BZD 50 registration fee + BZD 12 (x 2) for registering the statutes and memorandum + BZD 13 to register the directors to act on behalf of the company
3 Submit application to City Council for a trade license 1 day no charge
4 Receive inspection from City Council inspector 20 days no charge
* 5 Pay for the trade license at the City Council 1 day (simultaneous with procedure 4) 25% of the annual rental value of the business premises
6 Make a company seal 2 days BZD 50-200
7 Register the company for business tax at the income tax department 10 days BZD 150
* 8 Register the company for general sales tax (GST) at the GST office 2-3 weeks (simultaneous with procedure 7) no charge
* 9 Register the employees with the Social Security Board 2 days (simultaneous with procedure 7) no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.

** 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...

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