West Bank and Gaza

Starting a Business in

West Bank and Gaza

Listed below is a detailed summary of the bureaucratic and legal hurdles an entrepreneur must overcome in order to incorporate and register a new firm, along with their associated time and set-up costs.  It examines the procedures, time and cost involved in launching a commercial or industrial firm with up to 50 employees and start-up capital of 10 times the economy's per-capita gross national income (GNI).

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standardized Company

  • Legal Form: Private Limited Liability Company
  • City: Ramallah

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Search for company name and reserve proposed name

The name could be checked and reserved online and the Ministry sends an email with approval if the name is not already taken. The name reservation could be done in person at the registry. However payment of the name reservation fees should be paid at bank.
1 day ILS 87
2 Local lawyer signs company documents

Hiring a lawyer to draft the articles is recommended. Stamping them by the Lawyers Bar association before being filed at the companies' controller is required. The fees (at least 1000 USD) should be deposited with the Bar who in their turn will transfer 90% of the fee to the lawyer and will retain 10% for the Bar. This decision came into force as of January 2010.
1-3 days USD 1000
3 Submit company incorporation papers & obtain temporary copy of certificate of registration from Ministry

Before depositing the initial capital in the bank account, the company founder must obtain from the Ministry of National Economy a temporary registration copy designed for “bank account opening purposes only.” The company controller keeps the original and gives the company a copy to set up a bank account and to ensure that a certain amount of the capital is deposited in the bank.
2 days no charge
* 4 Deposit initial capital

The founders must deposit 25% of the initial capital plus the official bank fees (1/1,000 of stated capital). Upon payment, a receipt is obtained and supplied back to the Ministry. The Companies Registry gives the company its identification number and preliminary approval, which is required to open the bank account. The company then obtains this receipt and brings it to the Companies Registry to obtain the final approval.
1 day (simultaneous with previous procedure) see comments
5 Register with Companies Registry

The following documents are required to register with the Companies Registry,:
- Articles of association.
- Company bylaws.
- Shareholders identification card (copies).
- Verified company name.

Fee schedule for company registration:
- Company name verification: ILS 87 (included in Procedure 2).
- Application: ILS 285.
- Signature verification: ILS 84 per signature (minimum number of required signatures is two to form a private limited company or seven to form a public limited company). Note that signing must occur before the Company Registrar
- Initial deposit of 1/1,000 of the stated capital.

There are two separate types of fees, one that varies with the number of shareholders and another that is a percentage of the stated capital.
3-4 days see comments
6 Payment of registration fee

Registration fees must be paid at a local bank upon submission of the registration documents. The Ministry will not review the application until the fee is paid.
1 day no charge
7 Register for income and VAT tax

The tax offices are in the same building and the unique registration numbers for VAT and income tax are the same. In most cases, accountants register the company for these taxes. Registration for VAT takes a day and for income tax takes 2 days.
3 days no charge
8 Register with Chamber of Commerce

Registration with the Chamber is optional, however most businesses prefer to do it to qualify for business boarders permits. The fee to register with the Chamber of Commerce depends on the company’s capital and on the nature of business. for a Grade B with registered capital between USD 20,000 and USD 50,000:The membership fee is JD 100 ( about $143), Initial fee of ILS 50 ( about $15) and annual fee of USD 80.
14-18 days USD 158
* 9 Obtain business license from municipality

The time and cost for obtaining a business license varies from sector to sector. However for general trading the time is about 3 weeks and the fees are about ILS 20 for application and ILS 100 for the license.
35 days (simultaneous with previous procedure) ILS 120
* 10 Obtain approval from fire department

Providing the fire department approval is necessary to obtain the business license.
1-3 days (simultaneous with previous procedure) 0.15 USD per square meter
* 11 Obtain and legalize special company books

All corporate and financial records must be legalized by the company controller and auditors. Although this applies to all forms of companies, supervision is more stringent for public shareholding companies than for Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) or partnerships. in pratice, this procedure is not done for LLCs.
3 days (simultaneous with previous procedure) 30 USD per transaction
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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