The number of newly established Russian companies grew last year while the number of companies ceasing operations decreased, data has shown.
According to statistics on the Federal Tax Service website, 411,900 new commercial enterprises were included on the state registry in 2013 — an increase of 3.3 percent on 2012.
At the same time, the number of companies shutting down operations decreased 18.4 percent, from 51,000 in 2012 to 421,000 in 2013. Of this amount, liquidation accounted for 47,200 closures — an increase of 6.5 percent on 2012 — though the number of companies closing due to bankruptcy dropped from 10,100 to 9,600.
There was also a significant decrease in the number of companies closing due to exclusion from the tax registry — 335,300 down from 433,400 in 2012. Since 2005, tax authorities have sought to eliminate nonlegal entities, often used for tax evasion purposes, from the registry.
In total, 3.9 million operational commercial companies were listed on the state register in 2013, an increase of 2 percent on 2012. The total number of legal entities increased 1.6 percent to 4.6 million.
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