Trinidad and Tobago

Ease of Doing Business in

Trinidad and Tobago

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for Trinidad and Tobago. 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 Latin America & Caribbean
Income Category High income
Population 1,346,350
GNI Per Capita (US$) 15,040
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
69 70 down 1

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
59.4 58.6 down 0.8
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 71 66 up -5
Dealing with Construction Permits 101 98 up -3
Getting Electricity 11 11 No change
Registering Property 176 177 up 1
Getting Credit 23 23 No change
Protecting Investors 25 24 up -1
Paying Taxes 90 86 up -4
Trading Across Borders 75 84 up 9
Enforcing Contracts 170 171 up 1
Resolving Insolvency 135 136 up 1

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 71 DB 2012 Rank 66 Change in Rank down-5
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 78.9 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 78.9 Improvement in DTF** (% points) 0.0
Indicator Trinidad and Tobago 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).

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Procedures (number)
8 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.

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Time (days)
41 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.

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Cost (% of income per capita)
0.7 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.

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Paid-in Min. Capital (% of income per capita)
0.0 3.7 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Request company name 4 days TTD 25
2 Statutory declaration before Commissioner of Affidavits 1 day TTD 20
3 Registration with the Commercial Registry 4 days TTD 600 (TT$400 for Form 1; TT$ 40 for Form 31; TT$ 40 for Form 4; TT$ 40 for Form 8;TT$ 40 for Form 27; TT$ 40 for Certificate of Incorporation)
* 4 Make a company seal 2 days (simultaneous with previous procedure) TTD 115
5 Apply for tax payer identification number 1 day no charge
* 6 Apply for Registration as an Employer with National Insurance Board 1 day (simultaneous with previous procedure) no charge
* 7 Apply for Registration of Employees with National Insurance Board 30 days (simultaneous with previous procedure) no charge
* 8 Register for VAT 30 days (simultaneous with previous procedure) 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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