1. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Business registration, part 1 Administrative and statistical business registers 1 Business statistics and registers

2. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Registers in general Registers are necessary for the orderly functioning of any society, e.g.: – Registration of vital events (births, death, marriage, divorce) – Records of the population, e.g. needed for providing travel documents, creating lists of voters etc. – Registration of economic entities, e.g. for recording ownership, taxation, and for statistics – Registration of land and real estate, etc. – Registration of vehicles, etc. 2

3. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Problems with registers When registers are available, it is not always easy to use them Problems that may occur are:  Conceptual  Related to coverage  Related to updating and timeliness  Legal constraints  Computer related problems 3

4. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Types of business registers 4 1 Administrative business registers 2 Taxation registers of business units 3 Statistical business registers

5. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Rules for business registration The rules for registering economic entities are different from country to country In some countries compulsory registration only applies to corporations Some countries have special rules for the registration of agricultural units, or for crafts, or for private entrepreneurs Some activity categories may not be registered 5

6. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Data in administrative registers Information that is normally included in administrative registrations of businesses include: – Name of the legal unit, address etc. – Names of owner(s) or director(s) – Date of legal or administrative birth – Legal form – Activity code for the unit's primary activity – Ancillary activities (if any) – Number of employees – Date of start of activities – Information on local units (if any) 6

7. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Characteristics of CBR The Central Business Register (CBR) of a NSO is often initially based on information from administrative business registers The CBR consists of two different parts or sub- databases – One part is administrative information – Another part is used for statistical purposes Administrative information relates to legal units The statistical part of the CBR deals with statistical units 7

8. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Economic entities Economic statistics describe the activities of economic actors and the transactions that take place between them Economic entities have many different legal, organizational and operating structures To compile coordinated statistics it is necessary to define and delineate standard statistical units The comparability of statistics is enhanced when the units about which statistics are compiled are similarly defined and classified in all surveys Important characteristics for the classification and delineation of statistical units are institutional sector, activity and location 8

9. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Statistical units Statistical units are the entities about which information is sought – These may be legal or physical entities or statistical constructs Several criteria for the formation of statistical units are used: – legal, – accounting, – organizational, – Geographical, – and economic In some cases, legally separate units must be grouped together because the individual units are not autonomous In other cases legal units must be split into two or more units to achieve homogeneity 9

10. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Institutional units Institutional units are the core unit of the System of National Accounts (SNA): – is an economic entity that is capable, in its own right, of owning assets, incurring liabilities and engaging in economic activities and transactions with other entities – a set of economic accounts exists or can be compiled for the unit – households and legal or social entities whose existence is recognized independently of the persons or other entities that may own or control them 10

11. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Legal entities Legal entities are recognized by law or society – are involved in economic activities in their own right – legal constructs, e.g. to avoid taxes – Corporations may also create “dormant” subsidiaries 11