Liquidation of a company

Russian federal legislation defines liquidation of a company as termination of all its activities without transfer of any rights and obligation to a successor and exclusion of the company from the Governmental register of juridical persons.

Classical liquidation of a company might be compulsory (according to a decision of a court or tax agency) or voluntary (according to the companies own decision or decision of the companies founders). Liquidation of a company with debts might be carried out through a bankruptcy procedure initialized by the creditors or the debtor itself.

There are also several options for so called "alternative" liquidation, what can be used when you need urgent liquidation (classic liquidation takes quite a long time). In this case we change directors and founders of the company or reorganize it so that the former owners have no further links with the company while the company will be liquidated officially in the future.

Classical liquidation of a juridical person shall be carried out under Chapter 4 of Russian Civil Code, includes tax inspection of the last three years of the company activities and ends up with exclusion of the company from the Governmental register of juridical persons.

This variant of liquidation takes from 6 to 24 months and costs from 45 000 rubles.

Liquidation through bankruptcy procedures

Company, with debts exceeding its assets, can be considered bankrupt according to a court decision which leads to liquidation of the company. But we shall draw your attention to the fact that you should not try to avoid your companies debts through bankruptcy procedure because each your activity with the companies assets will be checked very carefully.

Liquidation through bankruptcy procedures may last more than a year and cost more than 150 000 rubles.

Liquidation of a company through changing its directors and founders

While according to Russian legislation director, chief accountant and founders of a juridical person bear the responsibility for its actions, we presume that changing its directors and founders is the cheapest and the quickest way to liquidate a company. The founders of the company sell or grant their shares in the company, then director and chief accountant are changed and after that these changes are registered in all proper authorities.

Liquidation of a company through changing its directors and founders costs from 20 000 rubles and takes from three weeks.

Liquidation through merging

Here we merge several juridical persons and found a new one which inherits all rights and obligations of the merging companies, while their own activities are ceased. A company is considered liquidated from the moment of governmental registration of new juridical person.

Liquidation through joining another company

In this case the liquidated company joins another juridical person and transfers to it all its rights and obligations. Joining another company is considered legal when an appropriate record in the Governmental register of juridical persons is made.

Such "alternative" liquidations cost from 50 000 rubles and take from two month.