Guatemala

Ease of Doing Business in

Guatemala

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for Guatemala. 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 14,757,316
GNI Per Capita (US$) 2,870
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
93 98 down 5

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
60.9 59.8 down 1.1
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 172 168 up -4
Dealing with Construction Permits 94 146 up 52
Getting Electricity 34 33 up -1
Registering Property 20 22 up 2
Getting Credit 12 9 up -3
Protecting Investors 158 155 up -3
Paying Taxes 124 121 up -3
Trading Across Borders 117 115 up -2
Enforcing Contracts 96 98 up 2
Resolving Insolvency 109 107 up -2

Economy Profile

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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 172 DB 2012 Rank 168 Change in Rank down-4
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 65.5 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 65.6 Improvement in DTF** (% points) down-0.1
YearNew business densityNumber of new limited liability companies
2011 0.645,119
Indicator Guatemala 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)
12 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)
40 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)
48.1 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)
20.9 3.7 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Check the proposed company name at the Mercantile Registry of Guatemala 4 days no charge
2 Obtain letter from a Guatemalan notary public to open bank account 1 day no charge
3 Deposit the subscribed capital in a bank and obtain a receipt 1 day no charge
4 A notary public draws the deed of constitution 3 days GTQ 8,400 average notarial fees + tax
5 The notary buys the fiscal stamps and issues a certified copy of the deed of incorporation for filing with the commercial register 1 day Q250 stamp tax (company deed), Q300 (corporation license), 1 stamp at Q100 (Appointment of legal representative, Certified notarial copy of the deed of incorporation)
6 File notarized unique registration form and documents with the Commercial Register (Registro Mercantil) 4 days GTQ 275 flat fee + Q6 per every Q1000 of startup capital + Q15 edict
7 Publication of notice in Diario de Centro América 8 days GTQ 525.62
8 Registration of the appointment of legal representative of the company 1 day included in previous procedure
9 Obtain the definitive registration, tax and social security numbers, and authorization to print invoices 14 days included in previous procedure
10 Application for trading license 1 day GTQ 100
* 11 Submit company accounting books and books of minutes of shareholder and board of directors meetings to the Commercial Registry for their authorisation 1 day GTQ 0.15/page, assuming 100 pages
* 12 Application for book of salaries authorisation from the Inspection of the Department of Labour 1 day 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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