Iceland

Ease of Doing Business in

Iceland

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for Iceland. 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

Region OECD high income
Income Category High income
Population 319,000
GNI Per Capita (US$) 35,020
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
14 13 down -1

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
79.2 79.1 down 0.1
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 45 37 up -8
Dealing with Construction Permits 40 41 up 1
Getting Electricity 1 1 No change
Registering Property 9 9 No change
Getting Credit 40 38 up -2
Protecting Investors 49 46 up -3
Paying Taxes 41 39 up -2
Trading Across Borders 82 83 up 1
Enforcing Contracts 3 3 No change
Resolving Insolvency 11 11 No change

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 45 DB 2012 Rank 37 Change in Rank down-8
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 91.1 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 91.0 Improvement in DTF** (% points) up0.1
YearNew business densityNumber of new limited liability companies
2011 7.941,700
Indicator Iceland 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).

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Procedures (number)
5 -- 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.

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Time (days)
5 -- 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.

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Cost (% of income per capita)
3.0 -- 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.

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Paid-in Min. Capital (% of income per capita)
11.5 -- 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Search for company name 1 day no charge
2 Deposit initial capital in bank account 1 day no charge
3 Apply for registration with Register of Limited Companies (Director of Internal Revenue) 1 day ISK 130500
4 Obtain VAT number from Director of Taxes 1 day no charge
5 Notify tax authorities of employment of workers 1 day no charge

** 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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