Company Formation in Benin

General reference only. This skill is general tax/accounting reference material for AI-assisted workflows. It has not been reviewed for any specific person's facts, documents, elections, deadlines, residency, filing status, or local procedures. Do not rely on it to file, pay, amend, or take a tax position without review by a qualified professional in the relevant jurisdiction.

Who this applies to

Prepare the registration and capital checklist for an ordinary Benin SARL/SUARL or SA in 2026, with other forms referred to their own legal and APIEx requirements. APIEx's portal lists SARL, SA, SAS, SUARL, SNC, SCS and GIE; a sole-trader establishment and branch are separate choices, not interchangeable company forms. This Guide prepares the packet and capital/fee comparison. It does not submit an authenticated registration or determine a regulated-activity licence. APIEx AUSCGIE, art. 309

The signed national SARL decree is dated 26 March 2014, despite the portal link label saying 28 March. Its article 6 permits freely determined capital; OHADA article 311 expressly allows contrary national provisions. Use the signed text, not the obsolete regional default as a mandatory Benin SARL minimum. AUSCGIE, art. 311 Decree 2014-220, arts. 6 and 11

Rates, bands and thresholds

Item	Rule and conditions	Official source
SARL capital	Freely set by the associates in the statutes; not a registration fee	Decree 2014-220, art. 6
SARL cash subscription	At least half paid at subscription; balance within two years of RCCM registration. In-kind contributions paid in full	AUSCGIE, art. 311-1
SA minimum capital	FCFA 10 million, fully subscribed; cash shares at least one quarter paid at subscription, balance within three years after RCCM registration	AUSCGIE, art. 387; AUSCGIE, art. 388; AUSCGIE, art. 389
Published APIEx SARL/SUARL fee	FCFA 22,000; notary/professional charges not included	APIEx; APIEx
Published APIEx SA/SAS fee	FCFA 37,000; notary/professional charges not included	APIEx; APIEx
Published processing target	Three working hours after a complete submission; a service target, not a guarantee that an incomplete or regulated case is complete	APIEx
SARL statutory auditor	At least two: balance-sheet total over FCFA 125 million; annual turnover over FCFA 250 million; permanent staff over 50. Judicial appointment can also be requested by associates holding at least one tenth of capital	AUSCGIE, art. 376
SA statutory auditor	Mandatory control by one or more statutory auditors	AUSCGIE, art. 694

The base

1. Choose the legal form from the ownership, liability, governance, financing and regulated-activity facts. A SARL can have one or several associates with liability limited to contributions. Do not treat a branch or sole trader as a company with identical capital/liability. AUSCGIE, art. 309 APIEx
2. Separate subscribed capital, paid capital, the remaining payment obligation, the government registration fee and professional charges. SARL cash funds are deposited in an authorised bank/credit/microfinance institution with a receipt in the formation company's name; record the payment/deposit in the statutes. AUSCGIE, art. 311-1 Decree arts. 7–8
3. Prepare statutes signed by all associates, identity documents for associates/managers, the manager's criminal-record extract, head-office domiciliation evidence, SA/SAS subscription/payment declaration and cash-deposit certificate where applicable. APIEx requires a notary for SA/SAS; SARL statutes can be private or notarised. Confirm the specific document list for foreigners and in-kind contributions before submission. APIEx Decree art. 2
4. Test statutory-auditor requirements against the law's two-of-three SARL test and the separate SA rule. Do not use the portal comparison's capital-based/any-one test in place of OHADA article 376. Review appointment/release procedures separately for a live case. AUSCGIE, art. 376 AUSCGIE, art. 694

Deadlines and filing

Start at APIEx MonEntreprise, select the actual form and prepare the stated documents. The public process describes an online form, online payment, APIEx processing with the tribunal/DGI/CNSS and downloadable certificates. The authenticated fields, checkout, final validation and receipts were not accessed; this working paper stops before submission. APIEx

Reconcile the received RCCM extract, IFU tax identifier, CNSS employer notification, labour declaration and legal announcement against the application. Check their authenticity using the portal's certificate instructions. IFU is the DGI-assigned identifier; do not substitute a guessed tax number. APIEx

For continuing ordinary-company compliance, maintain the applicable OHADA accounts and the annual IS attachment pack, use the corporate Guide for tax filing dates, and the VAT and payroll Guides when those obligations apply. The annual accounts meeting is required within six months of exercise close under article 140; account filing and any extension need their actual procedure. CGI 2026, art. 50 AUSCGIE, art. 140

Penalties and interest

This packet does not price registration, corporate-law or professional failures from memory. Obtain the applicable sanction provision and notice for a live failure. Tax filing/payment sanctions are separately recorded in the overview.

Cross-border points

Foreign associates, a foreign manager and a branch require the actual identity, residence and parent-entity documents. Benin registration does not decide the foreign parent's PE or treaty outcome, nor automatically licence a regulated activity. Tax PE and withholding must be tested separately. APIEx CGI 2026, art. 5 CGI 2026, art. 6

Two worked examples that recompute

SARL paid capital and registration fee are different amounts. Assume the associates choose FCFA 2 million in cash capital and use the minimum half-payment at subscription. Paid capital is 1 million, unpaid capital is 1 million and the published APIEx fee is 22,000. Initial identified funding is 1,022,000 before professional costs, not 2,022,000 and not a claim that the whole capital is a fee.

name: SARL capital versus fee
inputs:
  subscribed_cash_capital: 2000000
  official_fee: 22000
steps:
  cash_paid_now: subscribed_cash_capital*0.50
  cash_unpaid: subscribed_cash_capital-cash_paid_now
  identified_initial_funding: cash_paid_now+official_fee
expected:
  cash_paid_now: 1000000
  cash_unpaid: 1000000
  identified_initial_funding: 1022000

SA capital decision. Assume an ordinary SA at the statutory minimum with all contributions in cash. At least one quarter is paid at subscription, so identified paid capital is 2.5 million and the balance is 7.5 million. Add the published 37,000 fee separately; notary/professional costs remain outside the amount. This uses the signed law's quarter rule, not the inconsistent half-capital portal comparison.

name: SA quarter capital payment
inputs:
  subscribed_cash_capital: 10000000
  official_fee: 37000
steps:
  minimum_paid_now: subscribed_cash_capital*0.25
  remaining_cash_capital: subscribed_cash_capital-minimum_paid_now
  identified_initial_funding: minimum_paid_now+official_fee
expected:
  minimum_paid_now: 2500000
  remaining_cash_capital: 7500000
  identified_initial_funding: 2537000

Ask the client first

• Which form, owners, liability/governance needs and regulated activity are proposed?
• Are there foreign owners/managers, a branch or a non-Benin parent?
• What capital is subscribed, in cash/in kind, paid and still due?
• Which signed statutes, identity, criminal-record, address and deposit documents are ready?
• What are the balance sheet, turnover and permanent staff for the auditor test?
• What registration identifiers, certificates, tax regimes and ongoing filing obligations already exist?

Sources

Official source	What was actually read	Read on
DGI official CGI, 2026 edition	Articles 5–6 and 50, including adjacent conditions in the extracted official text. The cover consolidates the original 2026 finance law, not the June rectifying law.	2026-11-01
Signed SARL decree 2014-220	Decree pages 1–4 visually read, arts. 1–11 and dated signature; template annexes were not fully reviewed. Actual date is 26 March 2014.	2026-11-01
OHADA signed AUSCGIE	Arts. 140, 309–311-1, 376, 387–389 and 694 read with adjacent conditions in extracted text; PDF pages 36, 77, 93, 95 and 161 also visually checked. No whole-240-page reading claim.	2026-11-01
APIEx	Read for the company packet, SARL/SA fee, notary requirements and complete-file processing paragraphs on the current public page.	2026-11-01
APIEx	Read for the current public SARL/SUARL and SA creation-fee rows and processing-target table.	2026-11-01
APIEx	Read for the six public registration stages and the list of certificate outputs.	2026-11-01
APIEx	Read for the RCCM, IFU, CNSS, labour declaration and announcement descriptions and authentication instructions.	2026-11-01

| APIEx | Read for the current public identity and foreign-applicant supporting-document descriptions; authenticated upload fields not accessed. | 2026-11-01 |

Not yet confirmed: complete live requirements for SAS, SNC, SCS, GIE, branches and sole traders beyond the public routing description; activity licences, foreign-document validation, in-kind valuation and capital-governance edge cases; professional/notarial fees, current authenticated form/payment and RCCM accounts-deposit procedure. The legacy USD-cost and eight-hour assertions are replaced by the current published APIEx FCFA fee and processing target. Portal comparison conflicts on SA paid capital and SARL audit criteria are resolved here in favour of the signed law, not repeated as rules; authenticated DGI portal screens, exact field identifiers and payment-confirmation workflow; later instruments not identified by the sources read; application to a particular taxpayer. Independent AI source review closed on 1 November 2026 for the bounded job (see the country README); no accountant has attested to this version.