Blow to the legal entity: the number of companies in Russia has fallen to a minimum in 15 years

The number of registered companies in Russia has decreased to the lowest level in 15 years. According to the Federal Tax Service, as of September 1, 2025, almost 3.2 million organizations are listed in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE). During the year, their number decreased by 56 thousand. This is due to the Federal Tax Service's struggle against business fragmentation, the high cost of loans, increased fiscal control, and the intensification of government efforts to combat "pacifiers." They conduct fictitious activities and can cause systemic problems in the market. Whether to wait for a new wave of business closures is in the Izvestia article.

How many companies are registered in the Russian Federation

As of September 1 of this year, 3.17 million organizations were registered in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities in Russia, according to statistics from the Federal Tax Service, which was studied by Izvestia. This is the lowest figure since at least 2010 (there is no earlier monthly data). For comparison, in September 2024, there were 56 thousand more companies in the register - 3.25 million, and in the same month of 2023 — 3.29 million.

Izvestia sent a request to the Federal Tax Service about the reasons for this decrease.

One of the main factors was the heavy credit burden on businesses due to the increase in the key rate, said Evelina Gomonko, associate professor at the Faculty of Economics at the RUDN University. The Central Bank kept the rate at a record level of 21% per annum for more than six months, and only in June it began to ease monetary policy. At the last meeting on September 12, the regulator lowered the key to 17%.

The decrease in the number of companies was also influenced by increased fiscal control and the activation of the Tax Service in cleaning up "dormant" and inactive legal entities, she noted.

— On the one hand, it is increasing business transparency, consolidating players, and optimizing production processes. On the other hand, there is a weakening of competition, a reduction in the company's need for employees, a decrease in the quality of services and motivation for innovation, the expert believes.

The Federal Tax Service regularly cleans the lists of companies, said Dmitry Zavyalov, Head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Logistics, Dean of the Faculty of Higher School of Economics and Business of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. So, in 2024, 100 thousand organizations were removed from the register for unreliability of information. In 2023, there were 172 thousand of them, and in 2021 - 214 thousand.

— A significant proportion of company liquidations in Russia is not a voluntary termination of companies, but a forced exclusion from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities on the initiative of the Federal Tax Service. More than half of such cases are related to the provision of false information, and about 18% more are related to the recognition of the company as invalid (those who did not submit reports and did not conduct operations)," said Daniil Gonenko, Associate professor of Economics and Finance of the Public Sector at the Presidential Academy.

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Why is the shortage of personnel and rising costs much more strongly affecting the activities of enterprises?

This indicates that the Tax Service is actively cleaning the registry, and there is a fight against unscrupulous businesses and one-day firms, which hinders the development of the shadow economy, he believes.

What are the dangers of one-day firms?

One-day firms are created, for example, to steal and cash out money, legalize criminal proceeds and commit other crimes.

The main risk associated with them is improper business discretion when choosing a counterparty, said Elena Gladysheva, a member of the Moscow regional branch of Delovaya Rossiya. That is, legitimate companies can unknowingly make deals with dummy companies by participating in criminal schemes. In addition, after the conclusion of the contract, such a fictitious company can receive an advance and disappear.

The actions of the tax authority to clean the registry gives a certain guarantee that there will be no tax or other claims against a clean business in the future, the expert explained. It also prevents fragmentation and the creation of a huge number of "mirror" companies, she said.

Recently, there have been more on-site inspections of the Federal Tax Service due to fragmentation, and some disputes have already reached court. The scheme is used to distribute income between enterprises. Most often, organizations that have gone beyond the threshold of applying the simplified taxation system, but want to maintain benefits, resort to it.

Currently, the Russian Federation has a tax amnesty for business fragmentation. The main condition is the voluntary abandonment of illegal schemes starting in 2025 and the transition to the correct calculation of taxes. If they comply with it, companies will be exempt from paying arrears, penalties and fines for 2022-2024, even if violations are detected during on-site inspections. Some people actually use such a system. This also leads to a reduction in the total number of organizations.

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Are there any bankruptcy risks and how many of them depend on such contracts?

Will the reduction in the number of companies continue

— The easing of the monetary policy pursued by the Bank of Russia will contribute to a gradual reduction in interest rates on loans and increase the availability of borrowed funds for enterprises. This will lead to an increase in business activity, business development and will have a positive impact on the number of legal entities. But the process will not be fast," Evelina Gomonko from the RUDN University believes.

Due to the slowdown in the economy, the number of companies is indeed decreasing, but there are already trends that contribute to leveling this situation, says Sergey Elin, an expert on financial and legal security at the Moscow branch of Opora Russia. Among them is a reduction in the key rate to 17%, he said.

In general, the market is trending towards business consolidation in all areas of the economy, believes Elena Gladysheva from Delovaya Rossiya. This leads to a decrease in the need for additional legal entities, which means a reduction in the registration of new companies. At the same time, taking into account the activity of controlling persons, the trend will continue and multiply, she believes.

As Izvestia wrote, in the first half of 2025, the "business mortality rate" was almost 1.5 times higher than its "birth rate" - for the first time since the sanctions of 2022, when companies left the market en masse. Enterprises in trade, construction and manufacturing industries were most often closed. In winter, a wave of bankruptcies among developers began in the regions: in Yekaterinburg, the former general contractor of the PIK Stroyproekt Group turned out to be on the verge of ruin, and in Rostov-on-Don, the Donstroy IC was declared bankrupt, having failed to repay the debt to the bank.