Business Permits & Incorporation for Foreigners in Santo Domingo

Reduced Rate Percent

16

Standard Rate Percent

18

Name

ITBIS (Impuesto sobre Transferencia de Bienes y Servicios)

Filing Frequency

monthly

E Invoicing Mandate

Electronic invoicing (e-CF) is now the legal backbone of tax compliance under Law 322-23 and Decree 587-24; the final rollout deadline for micro, small, unclassified and state entities is 15 May 2026, after which all businesses regardless of size must use certified e-invoicing.

Notes

Businesses must register and file monthly ITBIS returns with the DGII.

Foreigner Specific Notes

• Foreigners can own 100% of a Dominican company, including SAS, SRL, and SA structures — no local partner is legally required — but a local legal representative must be appointed.
• Every structure — from persona física up to SA — requires obtaining an RNC (tax ID) from DGII; company-level RNC registration additionally requires Chamber of Commerce (Registro Mercantil) registration first.
• If the company will hire employees, separate registration with the Social Security Treasury (Tesorería de la Seguridad Social, TSS) and Ministry of Labor is mandatory regardless of the owner's nationality.

Penalties

Late or inaccurate filings can trigger monetary penalties, interest charges (DGII applies a monthly interest rate of around 1.10% on amounts owed), and administrative sanctions.

Who Must File

All registered legal entities (LLCs/SRL, joint-stock/SA, branches, non-profits) must file annually; dormant entities must still file to maintain their RNC in good standing.

Primary Return

Form IR-2 (annual corporate income tax return), filed electronically via DGII's Oficina Virtual

Advance Payments

Corporations must pay advance monthly or quarterly ISR installments based on the prior year's tax or projected income, reconciled against the annual IR-2 filing.

Approx Deadline Note

Corporations are commonly reported to file their annual declaration before April 30 for a calendar-year fiscal period, though nomads/foreign owners should confirm the exact deadline for their specific fiscal year with an accountant, as this was not independently confirmed on DGII's own site during this research.

Trade Name Fee

ONAPI charges a service fee for trade-name filing; the exact amount depends on the specific procedure and is paid online — no fixed figure was found in current official fee schedules.

Rnc Registration

Registration with the DGII for the RNC (tax ID) is free of charge.

Incorporation Tax

1% of the company's authorized share capital, paid to the DGII — so cost scales directly with how much capital you choose to set in the bylaws rather than being a flat fee.

Municipal Business Permit

DOP 11,780

Local business permits from municipalities are commonly quoted in the range of USD 200–500 per year; converted here at the low end. Confirm the exact fee with the specific ayuntamiento (municipality) where you register, since this figure comes from a generalist aggregator rather than a municipal fee schedule.

Typical Ongoing Compliance

Basic bookkeeping/accounting support is commonly quoted starting around $50/month, and annual financial-statement compliance filings around $300–500, on top of the incorporation itself.

SRL Illustrative Minimum Capital

DOP 100,000

This RD$100,000 figure is the historically-cited SRL minimum; recent guidance says Law 68-19 removed the fixed statutory minimum, so actual required capital is now whatever is set in your bylaws.

Typical Range

Estimates vary by source: some report the full process (name reservation through Social Security/Labor registration) taking approximately 15 to 20 business days, while other firms quote roughly 2 to 4 weeks including name registration, tax setup, and bank account opening.

Notes

Name publication in ONAPI's monthly bulletin alone can take about 10 days per some sources; fiscal-receipt (invoicing) approval from DGII can add roughly another 25 days in some accounts. Using a local attorney to run filings in parallel is the main way nomads report shortening this.

Ubo Disclosure

Separately from incorporation itself, Law 155-17 on money laundering requires disclosure of any natural person who ultimately owns or controls 20% or more of the company, regardless of whether that ownership is direct or through intermediate entities.

Director Residency

Unlike many civil law jurisdictions, the country does not require any director to be a resident or national, so a company's entire board or management can be made up of foreign nationals residing abroad while remaining fully compliant.

Document Legalization

Foreign shareholders and directors must present identity documents (passport) and, where the company is incorporating a foreign-issued corporate shareholder, apostilled/legalized corporate documents; all filings must be in Spanish.

Foreign Ownership Cap

None — full foreign ownership is permitted with no statutory cap on the percentage a foreign national or foreign entity can hold.

SRL Minimum Shareholders

An SRL requires a minimum of two shareholders and permits a maximum of fifty; a single-person SRL is not available under this entity type, which matters for a solo nomad founder who may need a second nominal partner (e.g., spouse, business partner, or a second personal holding entity).

Shareholder Nationality Rules SRL

Shareholders in an SRL (the most common vehicle) face no nationality or residency requirements, and legal entities may also act as shareholders.

No Local Sponsor Or Partner Mandate

There is no requirement for a Dominican national or resident sponsor/partner to incorporate. Foreigners can hold 100% of the shares of a Dominican company.