Electronic Registration Available To Foreign Founders

Under the amendment to the Law on State Registration and State Register of Legal Entities, the notions of a limited liability company (LLC) with foreign investment and electronic state registration of LLC with foreign investment are introduced.

Foreign and stateless persons wishing to establish an LLC (presumably, without any local or foreign co- founders) must fill in online an application and e-sign it together with a customised charter generated by the system. Another document to file electronically is a scan of the document proving the address of the LLC. A confirmation of filing and the registration documents following completion of the e-registration are e-mailed to the foreign/stateless founder.

The amendment clarifies that any foreigner (as opposed to a foreigner with the right to reside in Azerbaijan permanently) can found the LLC.

The amendment is effective 18 October 2017 (although we understand its implementation is taking longer).

CRS AUTOMATIC EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION

In our October 2016 update , we highlighted tax reforms for 2016, including implementation of the "common reporting standard" (CRS). Azerbaijan is now a signatory of the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (CRS MCAA) and the first exchange of information by Azerbaijan pursuant to it is due by September 2018.

OF EXECUTION (ENFORCEMENT OF JUDGMENTS)

As you know, the most pressing issues of the recent years have been the currency devaluation that has taken place in the country and the debt crisis having emerged following the change of the US Dollar exchange rate. If, in the onset of the developments, most of the debate has been primarily between the banks and populace, subsequently, complaints, whether substantiated or not, of individuals in relation to compulsory execution measures of bailiffs (execution officers) of relevant court instances have built on top of the bank- individual confrontation. To be precise, the public that is unaware of the cases and amounts of payments to be legally made for compulsory execution measures is now dissatisfied with the relevant courts and execution bodies.

The currency devaluation in the country since February 2015 and the US Dollar exchange rate increase have resulted in an extreme rise in all court instances of the number of actions and claims by banks against individuals for debt collections. If, at the outset, dissatisfaction of individuals was caused by the banks'...