Burundi provides several business forms for investors, of which the main forms include:

Company (Limited Liability Company or Public Limited Company)
Sole Proprietorship
Free Zone Company
Foreign Business (Subsidiary or Branch or Representative Office)

Company

Companies can be formed either as Limited Liability Companies or as Public Limited Companies.

The key aspects of Limited Liability Company include:

Shareholders liability is limited to their contribution to the company
Minimum capital requirement is of USD 1
Can be formed by a minimum of one shareholder (2 shareholders, if one of the shareholders is a company) and one director, of any nationality and maximum shareholders can be 50
Shareholder & Director can be an Individual or a Company
Required to appoint Statutory Auditor and submit audited financial statements to the relevant authority

The key aspects of Public Limited Company include:

Shareholders liability is limited to their contribution to the company
Minimum capital of USD 1 is required
Can be formed by a minimum of 3 shareholders and 2 directors, of any nationality
Shareholder & Director can be an Individual or a Corporate
Required to appoint approved statutory auditor & submit annual audited financial statements.

Sole Proprietorship

It is also known as Unipersonal Company.

The key aspects of Sole Proprietorship include:

Can be formed by 1 shareholder
A sole proprietorship cannot form another sole proprietorship firm

Free Zone Company

Free Zone Companies are companies formed in Burundi’s Special Economic Zones. SEZ is governed by liberal and specific economic laws that grant more incentives to qualifying investors than to those subject to common law.

The key aspects of Free Zone Company include:

Required to export all their production
Employ a majority of Burundi nationals
Minimum capital requirement is of USD 1
No requirement of submission of an annual tax return as also financial statements
No requirement of statutory audit
Minimum 1 resident director or representative and 1 shareholder is required

Foreign Business (Subsidiary, Branch, Representative Office)

Foreign companies can conduct their operations in Burundi through the constitution of a subsidiary, branch office or a representative office.

Subsidiary can be formed as an LLC, a PLC or a Free Zone Company.

Generally, branch and representative office are not regarded as separate legal entities in Burundi. A representative office cannot engage in commercial or business activity, whereas a branch, being able to carry out all or part of a legal entity’s functions, may engage in business or commercial activity.

Further information on the general investment, tax and regulatory regime about the country is available at the following external references:

“Doing Business” report from World Bank – click here
Reports and publications from OECD – click here
Reports and publications from IMF - click here
Taxation overview – click here
Invest in Burundi - click here

Powerful Tax Solutions

Tax Rules Engine

Collaboration Tools

Latest Tax News