Another bill to facilitate starting a business

The draft law tabled yesterday by the Economy and Development Ministry promises to cut the time and cost of starting a business in Greece, although this has been the aim of various such laws without red tape being cut to a sufficient extent.

The new bill also provides for setting up a company remotely, in some cases without the presence of a notary, and abolishes the need for the entrepreneur to visit the tax office and social security funds.

The draft law further contains regulation changes in a series of product markets in accordance with a toolkit provided by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). These changes constitute a milestone in the completion of the second bailout review and are expected to be voted into law on Tuesday.

Among the main measures of the bill is the provision that setting up an enterprise will exclusively take place at a One-Stop Agency (chambers of commerce and notaries provide this service). Some companies (SA or Ltd) can be set up without a notary docu- ment as long as the document providing information about the enterprise strictly adheres to the model document.

An electronic One-Stop Agency (e-YMS) is to be set up and is expected to become fully operational at the end of the first half of 2017. Its pilot operation will begin around end-March.

Upon their setup at the OneStop Agency, enterprises will automatically receive a tax registration number and will be registered with their relevant social security entity.