82861 Economy Profile: Iceland Doing Business 2014 Iceland 2 © 2013 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000; Internet: www.worldbank.org All rights reserved. 1 2 3 4 15 14 13 12 A copublication of The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. Note that The World Bank does not necessarily own each component of the content included in the work. The World Bank therefore does not warrant that the use of the content contained in the work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. The risk of claims resulting from such infringement rests solely with you. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. 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Cover design: The Word Express Doing Business 2014 Iceland 3 CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4 The business environment .......................................................................................................... 5 Starting a business ..................................................................................................................... 14 Dealing with construction permits ........................................................................................... 22 Getting electricity ....................................................................................................................... 32 Registering property .................................................................................................................. 40 Getting credit .............................................................................................................................. 48 Protecting investors ................................................................................................................... 55 Paying taxes ................................................................................................................................ 64 Trading across borders .............................................................................................................. 72 Enforcing contracts .................................................................................................................... 80 Resolving insolvency .................................................................................................................. 89 Employing workers .................................................................................................................... 94 Data notes ................................................................................................................................. 101 Resources on the Doing Business website ............................................................................ 107 Doing Business 2014 Iceland 4 INTRODUCTION Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to January–December 2012). medium-size business when complying with relevant The Doing Business methodology has limitations. Other regulations. It measures and tracks changes in areas important to business—such as an economy’s regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a proximity to large markets, the quality of its business: starting a business, dealing with construction infrastructure services (other than those related to permits, getting electricity, registering property, trading across borders and getting electricity), the getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, security of property from theft and looting, the trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving transparency of government procurement, insolvency and employing workers. macroeconomic conditions or the underlying strength In a series of annual reports Doing Business presents of institutions—are not directly studied by Doing quantitative indicators on business regulations and the Business. The indicators refer to a specific type of protection of property rights that can be compared business, generally a local limited liability company across 189 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, operating in the largest business city. Because over time. The data set covers 47 economies in Sub- standard assumptions are used in the data collection, Saharan Africa, 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean, comparisons and benchmarks are valid across 25 in East Asia and the Pacific, 25 in Eastern Europe economies. The data not only highlight the extent of and Central Asia, 20 in the Middle East and North obstacles to doing business; they also help identify the Africa and 8 in South Asia, as well as 31 OECD high- source of those obstacles, supporting policy makers in income economies. The indicators are used to analyze designing regulatory reform. economic outcomes and identify what reforms have More information is available in the full report. Doing worked, where and why. Business 2014 presents the indicators, analyzes their This economy profile presents the Doing Business relationship with economic outcomes and presents indicators for Iceland. To allow useful comparison, it business regulatory reforms. The data, along with also provides data for other selected economies information on ordering Doing Business 2014, are (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in available on the Doing Business website at this report are current as of June 1, 2013 (except for http://www.doingbusiness.org. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 5 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT For policy makers trying to improve their economy’s regulatory environment for business, a good place to ECONOMY OVERVIEW start is to find out how it compares with the regulatory environment in other economies. Doing Business provides an aggregate ranking on the ease of doing Region: OECD high income business based on indicator sets that measure and benchmark regulations applying to domestic small to Income category: High income medium-size businesses through their life cycle. Economies are ranked from 1 to 189 by the ease of Population: 320,137 doing business index. For each economy the index is calculated as the ranking on the simple average of its GNI per capita (US$): 38,710 percentile rankings on each of the 10 topics included in the index in Doing Business 2014: starting a business, DB2014 rank: 13 dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting DB2013 rank: 13* investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, Change in rank: 0 enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. The ranking on each topic is the simple average of the DB 2014 DTF: 81.74 percentile rankings on its component indicators (see the data notes for more details). The employing workers DB 2013 DTF: 81.44 indicators are not included in this year’s aggregate ease of doing business ranking, but the data are presented Change in DTF: 0.34 in this year’s economy profile. The aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business * DB2013 ranking shown is not last year’s published benchmarks each economy’s performance on the ranking but a comparable ranking for DB2013 that indicators against that of all other economies in the captures the effects of such factors as data Doing Business sample (figure 1.1). While this ranking corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, tells much about the business environment in an Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the economy, it does not tell the whole story. The ranking on sample this year. See the data notes for sources and the ease of doing business, and the underlying definitions. indicators, do not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors or that affect the competitiveness of the economy. Still, a high ranking does mean that the government has created a regulatory environment conducive to operating a business. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 6 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Figure 1.1 Where economies stand in the global ranking on the ease of doing business Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 7 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT For policy makers, knowing where their economy relative to the regional average (figure 1.2). The stands in the aggregate ranking on the ease of economy’s rankings on the topics included in the doing business is useful. Also useful is to know how ease of doing business index provide another it ranks relative to comparator economies and perspective (figure 1.3). Figure 1.2 How Iceland and comparator economies rank on the ease of doing business Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 8 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Figure 1.3 How Iceland ranks on Doing Business topics Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 9 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Just as the overall ranking on the ease of doing business Doing Business introduced the distance to frontier tells only part of the story, so do changes in that ranking. measure. This measure shows how far on average an Yearly movements in rankings can provide some indication economy is from the best performance achieved by any of changes in an economy’s regulatory environment for economy on each Doing Business indicator since 2005, firms, but they are always relative. except for the getting electricity indicators, which were introduced in 2009. Moreover, year-to-year changes in the overall rankings do not reflect how the business regulatory environment in an Comparing the measure for an economy at 2 points in economy has changed over time—or how it has changed time allows users to assess how much the economy’s in different areas. To aid in assessing such changes, regulatory environment as measured by Doing Business has changed over time—how far it has moved toward (or away from) the most efficient practices and strongest regulations in areas covered by Doing Business (figure 1.4). Figure 1.4 How far has Iceland come in the areas measured by Doing Business? Note: The distance to frontier measure shows how far on average an economy is from the best performance achieved by any economy on each Doing Business indicator since 2005, except for the getting electricity indicators, which were introduced in 2009. The measure is normalized to range between 0 and 100, with 100 representing the best performance (the frontier). The overall distance to frontier is the average of the distance to frontier in the first 9 indicator sets shown in the figure and does not include getting electricity. Data on the overall distance to frontier including getting electricity is available at http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/distance-to-frontier. See the data notes for more details on the distance to frontier measure. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 10 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT The absolute values of the indicators tell another part business regulation—such as a regulatory process that of the story (table 1.1). The indicators, on their own or can be completed with a small number of procedures in comparison with the indicators of a good practice in a few days and at a low cost. Comparison of the economy or those of comparator economies in the economy’s indicators today with those in the previous region, may reveal bottlenecks reflected in large year may show where substantial bottlenecks persist — numbers of procedures, long delays or high costs. Or and where they are diminishing. they may reveal unexpected strengths in an area of Table 1.1 Summary of Doing Business indicators for Iceland Best performer globally Denmark DB2014 Germany DB2014 Norway DB2014 Sweden DB2014 Finland DB2014 Iceland DB2014 Iceland DB2013 Indicator France DB2014 DB2014 Starting a Business 52 46 40 55 41 111 53 61 New Zealand (1) (rank) Procedures (number) 5 5 4 3 5 9 5 3 New Zealand (1)* Time (days) 4.5 4.5 5.5 14.0 6.5 14.5 7.0 16.0 New Zealand (0.5) Cost (% of income per 2.7 3.0 0.2 1.1 0.9 4.7 1.6 0.5 Slovenia (0.0) capita) Paid-in Min. Capital (% 10.5 11.5 23.9 7.0 0.0 0.0 5.1 13.1 112 Economies (0.0)* of income per capita) Dealing with Hong Kong SAR, Construction Permits 41 39 8 36 92 12 28 24 China (1) (rank) Hong Kong SAR, Procedures (number) 18 18 8 16 9 9 10 7 China (6) Time (days) 77.0 77.0 67.0 66.0 184.0 97.0 136.0 116.0 Singapore (26.0) Doing Business 2014 Iceland 11 Best performer globally Denmark DB2014 Germany DB2014 Norway DB2014 Sweden DB2014 Finland DB2014 Iceland DB2014 Iceland DB2013 Indicator France DB2014 DB2014 Cost (% of income per 25.1 27.4 87.2 43.3 244.4 46.7 28.6 76.3 Qatar (1.1) capita) Getting Electricity 1 2 18 22 42 3 17 9 Iceland (1) (rank) Procedures (number) 4 4 4 5 5 3 4 3 10 Economies (3)* Time (days) 22 22 38 42 79 17 66 52 Germany (17) Cost (% of income per 14.4 14.9 118.4 29.6 43.3 46.9 12.1 36.6 Japan (0.0) capita) Registering Property 12 10 7 26 149 81 10 38 Georgia (1) (rank) Procedures (number) 3 3 3 3 8 5 1 1 4 Economies (1)* Time (days) 3.5 3.5 4.0 14.0 49.0 40.0 3.0 28.0 New Zealand (1.0)* Cost (% of property 2.4 2.4 0.6 4.0 6.1 5.7 2.5 4.3 5 Economies (0.0)* value) Getting Credit (rank) 42 40 28 42 55 28 73 42 Malaysia (1)* Strength of legal rights 7 7 9 8 7 7 6 8 10 Economies (10)* index (0-10) Depth of credit 5 5 4 4 4 6 4 4 31 Economies (6)* information index (0-6) Public registry coverage 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 43.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 Portugal (100.0)* (% of adults) Private bureau 100.0 100.0 7.5 19.5 0.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 22 Economies (100.0)* coverage (% of adults) Protecting Investors 52 51 34 68 80 98 22 34 New Zealand (1) (rank) Extent of disclosure 7 7 7 6 10 5 7 8 10 Economies (10)* Doing Business 2014 Iceland 12 Best performer globally Denmark DB2014 Germany DB2014 Norway DB2014 Sweden DB2014 Finland DB2014 Iceland DB2014 Iceland DB2013 Indicator France DB2014 DB2014 index (0-10) Extent of director 5 5 5 4 1 5 6 4 Cambodia (10) liability index (0-10) Ease of shareholder 6 6 7 7 5 5 7 7 3 Economies (10)* suits index (0-10) Strength of investor 6.0 6.0 6.3 5.7 5.3 5.0 6.7 6.3 New Zealand (9.7) protection index (0-10) United Arab Emirates Paying Taxes (rank) 37 36 12 21 52 89 17 41 (1) Payments (number per Hong Kong SAR, 26 29 10 8 7 9 4 4 year) China (3)* United Arab Emirates Time (hours per year) 140 140 130 93 132 218 83 122 (12) Trading Across Borders 50 62 8 9 36 14 26 6 Singapore (1) (rank) Documents to export 4 4 4 4 2 4 4 3 Ireland (2)* (number) Time to export (days) 10 14 6 9 10 9 8 9 5 Economies (6)* Cost to export (US$ per 1,530 1,465 795 615 1,335 905 1,225 725 Malaysia (450) container) Documents to import 4 4 3 5 2 4 5 3 Ireland (2)* (number) Time to import (days) 9 9 5 7 11 7 7 6 Singapore (4) Cost to import (US$ per 1,620 1,620 745 625 1,445 940 1,100 735 Singapore (440) container) Enforcing Contracts 3 3 32 8 7 5 4 25 Luxembourg (1) (rank) Doing Business 2014 Iceland 13 Best performer globally Denmark DB2014 Germany DB2014 Norway DB2014 Sweden DB2014 Finland DB2014 Iceland DB2014 Iceland DB2013 Indicator France DB2014 DB2014 Time (days) 417 417 410 375 395 394 280 314 Singapore (150) Cost (% of claim) 9.0 9.0 23.3 13.3 17.4 14.4 9.9 31.2 Bhutan (0.1) Procedures (number) 27 27 35 33 29 30 34 30 Singapore (21)* Resolving Insolvency 11 11 10 3 46 13 2 20 Japan (1) (rank) Time (years) 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.9 1.9 1.2 0.9 2.0 Ireland (0.4) Cost (% of estate) 4 4 4 4 9 8 1 9 Norway (1) Outcome (0 as piecemeal sale and 1 as 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 going concern) Recovery rate (cents on 84.5 85.0 87.0 90.2 48.3 82.9 91.3 75.5 Japan (92.8) the dollar) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. For more information on “no practice” marks, see the data notes. * Two or more economies share the top ranking on this indicator. A number shown in place of an economy’s name indicates the number of economies that share the top ranking on the indicator. For a list of these economies, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 14 STARTING A BUSINESS Formal registration of companies has many WHAT THE STARTING A BUSINESS immediate benefits for the companies and for business owners and employees. Legal entities can INDICATORS MEASURE outlive their founders. Resources are pooled as several shareholders join forces to start a company. Procedures to legally start and operate a Formally registered companies have access to company (number) services and institutions from courts to banks as Preregistration (for example, name well as to new markets. And their employees can verification or reservation, notarization) benefit from protections provided by the law. An additional benefit comes with limited liability Registration in the economy’s largest companies. These limit the financial liability of business city company owners to their investments, so personal Postregistration (for example, social security assets of the owners are not put at risk. Where registration, company seal) governments make registration easy, more entrepreneurs start businesses in the formal sector, Time required to complete each procedure creating more good jobs and generating more (calendar days) revenue for the government. Does not include time spent gathering What do the indicators cover? information Doing Business measures the ease of starting a Each procedure starts on a separate day (2 business in an economy by recording all procedures cannot start on the same day). procedures officially required or commonly done in Procedures that can be fully completed practice by an entrepreneur to start up and online are an exception to this rule. formally operate an industrial or commercial Procedure completed once final document is business—as well as the time and cost required to received complete these procedures. It also records the paid-in minimum capital that companies must No prior contact with officials deposit before registration (or within 3 months). Cost required to complete each procedure The ranking on the ease of starting a business is (% of income per capita) the simple average of the percentile rankings on the 4 component indicators: procedures, time, cost Official costs only, no bribes and paid-in minimum capital requirement. No professional fees unless services required To make the data comparable across economies, by law Doing Business uses several assumptions about the Paid-in minimum capital (% of income business and the procedures. It assumes that all per capita) information is readily available to the entrepreneur and that there has been no prior contact with Deposited in a bank or with a notary before officials. It also assumes that the entrepreneur will registration (or within 3 months) pay no bribes. And it assumes that the business:  Has a start-up capital of 10 times income per  Is a limited liability company, located in the capita. largest business city and is 100% domestically  Has a turnover of at least 100 times income per owned. capita.  Has between 10 and 50 employees.  Does not qualify for any special benefits.  Conducts general commercial or industrial  Does not own real estate. activities. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 15 STARTING A BUSINESS Where does the economy stand today? What does it take to start a business in Iceland? costs 2.7% of income per capita and requires paid-in According to data collected by Doing Business, starting minimum capital of 10.5% of income per capita (figure a business there requires 5 procedures, takes 4.5 days, 2.1). Figure 2.1 What it takes to start a business in Iceland Paid-in minimum capital (% of income per capita): 10.5 Note: Time shown in the figure above may not reflect simultaneity of procedures. Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For more information on the methodology of the starting a business indicators, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). For details on the procedures reflected here, see the summary at the end of this chapter. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 16 STARTING A BUSINESS Globally, Iceland stands at 52 in the ranking of 189 regional average ranking provide other useful economies on the ease of starting a business (figure information for assessing how easy it is for an 2.2). The rankings for comparator economies and the entrepreneur in Iceland to start a business. Figure 2.2 How Iceland and comparator economies rank on the ease of starting a business Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 17 STARTING A BUSINESS What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over 2.3) can help show what is possible in making it easier time have had the best performance regionally or to start a business. And changes in regional averages globally on the procedures, time, cost or paid-in can show where Iceland is keeping up—and where it is minimum capital required to start a business (figure falling behind. Figure 2.3 Has starting a business become easier over time? Procedures (number) Time (days) Doing Business 2014 Iceland 18 STARTING A BUSINESS Cost (% of income per capita) Paid-in minimum capital (% of income per capita) Note: Ninety economies globally have no paid-in minimum capital requirement. DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 19 STARTING A BUSINESS Economies around the world have taken steps making greater firm satisfaction and savings and more it easier to start a business—streamlining procedures registered businesses, financial resources and job by setting up a one-stop shop, making procedures opportunities. simpler or faster by introducing technology and What business registration reforms has Doing Business reducing or eliminating minimum capital requirements. recorded in Iceland (table 2.1)? Many have undertaken business registration reforms in stages—and they often are part of a larger regulatory reform program. Among the benefits have been Table 2.1 How has Iceland made starting a business easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2005), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 20 STARTING A BUSINESS What are the details? Underlying the indicators shown in this chapter for STANDARDIZED COMPANY Iceland is a set of specific procedures—the bureaucratic and legal steps that an entrepreneur must complete to incorporate and register a new City: Reykjavik firm. These are identified by Doing Business through collaboration with relevant local Legal Form: Private Limited Liability Company professionals and the study of laws, regulations and Paid in Minimum Capital Requirement: ISK publicly available information on business entry in 500,000 that economy. Following is a detailed summary of those procedures, along with the associated time Start-up Capital: 10 times GNI per capita and cost. These procedures are those that apply to a company matching the standard assumptions (the “standardized company”) used by Doing Business in collecting the data (see the section in this chapter on what the indicators measure). Summary of procedures for starting a business in Iceland—and the time and cost Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete Search for company name The company name database can be accessed at the Internal Revenue Less than one day 1 no charge Web site (www.rsk.is). (online procedure) Procedure can be done online Deposit initial capital in bank account 2 The initial capital can be deposited in any commercial bank. 1 day no charge Apply for registration with Register of Limited Companies (Director of Internal Revenue) The partners need to deposit the initial capital in any commercial bank. The initial capital can be deposited in any commercial bank. To apply for registration with the Register of Limited Companies, the company must provide five documents: 1. Notification of incorporation form; 1 day ISK 130,500 3 2. Agreement of incorporation; 3. Record of the meeting of incorporation; 4. Articles of association; 5. Affidavit on payment of share capital, issued by a certified public account. The register is also in charge of advertising the incorporation notice in the Official Gazette, the official journal. The total registration fee is ISK 130,500, which includes the company identification number (ISK 5,000), Doing Business 2014 Iceland 21 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete and the fee for publishing the notification in the Official Gazette (ISK 1,000 including VAT). Model incorporation documents and forms (in Icelandic) can be found on the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Web site (www.ivr.is). The notification of incorporation form can be downloaded at no cost from the Internal Revenue Office Web site (www.rsk.is). Signed documents can be sent via email to the Register of Limited Companies (Director of Internal Revenue) Obtain VAT number from Director of Taxes Companies that plan to sell goods or services valued at more than ISK 1 day no charge 4 1000,000 a year are required to collect and report VAT. Notify tax authorities of employment of workers The notification can be filed through http://www.skattur.is with a web 1 day no charge 5 key. * Takes place simultaneously with another procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 22 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS Regulation of construction is critical to protect the WHAT THE DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION public. But it needs to be efficient, to avoid PERMITS INDICATORS MEASURE excessive constraints on a sector that plays an important part in every economy. Where complying with building regulations is excessively costly in Procedures to legally build a warehouse time and money, many builders opt out. They may (number) pay bribes to pass inspections or simply build Submitting all relevant documents and illegally, leading to hazardous construction that obtaining all necessary clearances, licenses, puts public safety at risk. Where compliance is permits and certificates simple, straightforward and inexpensive, everyone Submitting all required notifications and is better off. receiving all necessary inspections What do the indicators cover? Obtaining utility connections for water, Doing Business records the procedures, time and sewerage and a land telephone line cost for a business in the construction industry to Registering the warehouse after its obtain all the necessary approvals to build a completion (if required for use as collateral or warehouse in the economy’s largest business city, for transfer of the warehouse) connect it to basic utilities and register the Time required to complete each procedure property so that it can be used as collateral or (calendar days) transferred to another entity. Does not include time spent gathering The ranking on the ease of dealing with information construction permits is the simple average of the Each procedure starts on a separate day. percentile rankings on its component indicators: Procedures that can be fully completed online procedures, time and cost. are an exception to this rule. To make the data comparable across economies, Procedure considered completed once final Doing Business uses several assumptions about the document is received business and the warehouse, including the utility connections. No prior contact with officials The business: Cost required to complete each procedure (% of income per capita)  Is a limited liability company operating in Official costs only, no bribes the construction business and located in the largest business city.  Will be connected to water, sewerage (sewage system, septic tank or their  Is domestically owned and operated. equivalent) and a fixed telephone line. The  Has 60 builders and other employees. connection to each utility network will be 10 The warehouse: meters (32 feet, 10 inches) long.  Is a new construction (there was no  Will be used for general storage, such as of previous construction on the land). books or stationery (not for goods requiring special conditions).  Has complete architectural and technical plans prepared by a licensed architect or  Will take 30 weeks to construct (excluding all engineer. delays due to administrative and regulatory requirements). Doing Business 2014 Iceland 23 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS Where does the economy stand today? What does it take to comply with the formalities to permits there requires 18 procedures, takes 77.0 days build a warehouse in Iceland? According to data and costs 25.1% of income per capita (figure 3.1). collected by Doing Business, dealing with construction Figure 3.1 What it takes to comply with formalities to build a warehouse in Iceland Note: Time shown in the figure above may not reflect simultaneity of procedures. Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For more information on the methodology of the dealing with construction permits indicators, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). For details on the procedures reflected here, see the summary at the end of this chapter. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 24 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS Globally, Iceland stands at 41 in the ranking of 189 other useful information for assessing how easy it is for economies on the ease of dealing with construction an entrepreneur in Iceland to legally build a permits (figure 3.2). The rankings for comparator warehouse. economies and the regional average ranking provide Figure 3.2 How Iceland and comparator economies rank on the ease of dealing with construction permits Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 25 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over what is possible in making it easier to deal with time have had the best performance regionally or construction permits. And changes in regional globally on the procedures, time or cost required to averages can show where Iceland is keeping up—and deal with construction permits (figure 3.3) help show where it is falling behind. Figure 3.3 Has dealing with construction permits become easier over time? Procedures (number) Time (days) Doing Business 2014 Iceland 26 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS Cost (% of income per capita) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB201 3 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. For more information on “no practice” marks, see the data notes. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 27 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS Smart regulation ensures that standards are met while building safety while keeping compliance costs making compliance easy and accessible to all. reasonable, governments around the world have Coherent and transparent rules, efficient processes and worked on consolidating permitting requirements. adequate allocation of resources are especially What construction permitting reforms has Doing important in sectors where safety is at stake. Business recorded in Iceland (table 3.1)? Construction is one of them. In an effort to ensure Table 3.1 How has Iceland made dealing with construction permits easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Iceland made dealing with construction permits more costly by DB2011 increasing the fees to obtain the design approval and receive inspections. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2006), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 28 DEALING WITH CONSTRUCTION PERMITS What are the details? The indicators reported here for Iceland are based BUILDING A WAREHOUSE on a set of specific procedures—the steps that a company must complete to legally build a warehouse—identified by Doing Business through City : Reykjavik information collected from experts in construction licensing, including architects, civil engineers, Estimated construction lawyers, construction firms, utility ISK 99,000,000 Warehouse Value : service providers and public officials who deal with building regulations. These procedures are those The procedures, along with the associated time and that apply to a company and structure matching cost, are summarized below. the standard assumptions used by Doing Business in collecting the data (see the section in this chapter on what the indicators cover). Summary of procedures for dealing with construction permits in Iceland —and the time and cost Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete Obtain design approval The architectural drawings must be drawn to a scale of 1:100. A meeting of architects convenes every Tuesday to discuss the applications submitted subject to architectural drawing approval. The architects at Reykjavik Construction agency compare their notes, and if the application is complete and follows the guidelines and regulations of the Building Code the approval will be issued in 1 -- 2 weeks. 7 days ISK 339,328 1 The cost is ISK 85.00 per cubic meter and the application fee of ISK 7,700.00 for the approval of architectural drawings and designs. The approval is valid for 1 year within which BuildCo has to begin construction. Obtain approval of structural, electrical, and mechanical design drawings from Reykjavik construction board The company can present these design drawings all at once or separately. The mechanical design drawings include the potable water system, heating and ventilation, and sewerage system.The lowest fee for the approval of electrical drawings of this building is 17.100 Ikr. At 2 this stage when BuildCo receives the approval of the technical aspect of 14 days ISK 113,000 drawings it needs to pay for the inspections to be conducted during construction. The prepayment of inspections during construction is mandatory and the fee is ISK 7,200.00 per hour. The estimated time for inspection depending on the size and complicity of the project, estimated on the basis of the experience of last 3 years. This project would be about 24 Doing Business 2014 Iceland 29 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete hours for all inspections. The payment is made at this stage to ensure the inspections come during construction. The approval is valid for 1 year within which BuildCo has to build the construction. * Obtain approval of site manager The site manager must be a professional engineer or a master builder. They are generally licensed by the Ministry of Housing. The application 3 days no charge 3 for this approval should include an application form, curriculum vitae, education certificate, and the liability insurance payment. Obtain initial setout of building from Reykjavik planning authority The cost is ISK 36,000.00, including a tax for the final stake out of the 4 building. For simple buildings, half price is often collected for the first 5 days ISK 36,000 stake out prior to excavation. Receive foundation work inspection At each stage of construction before the work is covered, an inspection must be conducted by the municipality. These inspections must be 5 requested with -- a day’s notice, and no stoppage in construction may 1 day no charge take place. The request can be made via e-mail. The actual inspection takes 2 hours on average. Receive concrete work inspection 6 1 day no charge Receive steel work for slabs inspection 7 1 day no charge Receive frame inspection 8 1 day no charge Receive drainage inspection 9 1 day no charge Doing Business 2014 Iceland 30 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete Receive structure inspection 10 1 day no charge Receive timber scaffolding inspection The procedure is carried out by Occupational Safety and Health 1 day no charge 11 (OSHA). Receive plumbing inspection 12 1 day no charge Request occupancy permit and awaits final inspection The Reykjavik construction authority contacts all the other agencies that should inspect the building. The number of inspections depends 13 on the size and purpose of the building. For a small warehouse, only 21 days ISK 13,500 the fire, health, and labor inspections are necessary. The municipality coordinates these inspections. Receive final inspection The final inspection includes inspections of employee facilities by 14 Icelandic OSHA, inspection of hygienic conditions by the Reykjavik 7 days ISK 16,000 environmental and hygiene agency, and the fire system inspection. Register the building with the Municipality Once the occupancy permit is issued the owner of the building can 15 days no charge 15 register it with the Municipality. * Pay water connection fees to Orkuveita Reykjavíkur Water and electricity connection is administered by Reykjavik Power 16 Company based on a principle of a single window. Its operation and 1 day ISK 673,958 quality management are pursuant to ISO 9000. * Pay phone connection fees to the Iceland Telecommunication company 17 1 day ISK 2,990 The fee has been increased in 2008 to ISK 2,990.00. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 31 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete * Obtain water meter and final water connection 18 7 days no charge * Takes place simultaneously with another procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 32 GETTING ELECTRICITY Access to reliable and affordable electricity is vital WHAT THE GETTING ELECTRICITY for businesses. To counter weak electricity supply, many firms in developing economies have to rely INDICATORS MEASURE on self-supply, often at a prohibitively high cost. Whether electricity is reliably available or not, the Procedures to obtain an electricity first step for a customer is always to gain access by connection (number) obtaining a connection. Submitting all relevant documents and What do the indicators cover? obtaining all necessary clearances and permits Doing Business records all procedures required for Completing all required notifications and a local business to obtain a permanent electricity receiving all necessary inspections connection and supply for a standardized warehouse, as well as the time and cost to Obtaining external installation works and complete them. These procedures include possibly purchasing material for these works applications and contracts with electricity utilities, Concluding any necessary supply contract and clearances from other agencies and the external obtaining final supply and final connection works. The ranking on the ease of getting electricity is the simple average of Time required to complete each procedure the percentile rankings on its component (calendar days) indicators: procedures, time and cost. To make the Is at least 1 calendar day data comparable across economies, several assumptions are used. Each procedure starts on a separate day The warehouse: Does not include time spent gathering information  Is located in the economy’s largest business city, in an area where other Reflects the time spent in practice, with little warehouses are located. follow-up and no prior contact with officials  Is not in a special economic zone where Cost required to complete each procedure the connection would be eligible for (% of income per capita) subsidization or faster service. Official costs only, no bribes  Has road access. The connection works Excludes value added tax involve the crossing of a road or roads but are carried out on public land.  Is to either the low-voltage or the medium-  Is a new construction being connected to voltage distribution network and either overhead electricity for the first time. or underground, whichever is more common in the economy and area where the warehouse is  Has 2 stories, both above ground, with a located. The length of any connection in the total surface of about 1,300.6 square customer’s private domain is negligible. meters (14,000 square feet), and is built on a plot of 929 square meters (10,000 square  Requires crossing of a 10-meter road but all the feet). works are carried out in a public land, so there is no crossing into other people's private property. The electricity connection:  Involves installing one electricity meter. The  Is 150 meters long and is a 3-phase, 4-wire Y, monthly electricity consumption will be 0.07 140-kilovolt-ampere (kVA) (subscribed gigawatt-hour (GWh). The internal electrical capacity) connection. wiring has been completed. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 33 GETTING ELECTRICITY Where does the economy stand today? What does it take to obtain a new electricity procedures, takes 22 days and costs 14.4% of income connection in Iceland? According to data collected by per capita (figure 4.1). Doing Business, getting electricity there requires 4 Figure 4.1 What it takes to obtain an electricity connection in Iceland Note: Time shown in the figure above may not reflect simultaneity of procedures. For more information on the methodology of the getting electricity indicators, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). For details on the procedures reflected here, see the summary at the end of this chapter. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 34 GETTING ELECTRICITY Globally, Iceland stands at 1 in the ranking of 189 regional average ranking provide another perspective economies on the ease of getting electricity (figure in assessing how easy it is for an entrepreneur in 4.2). The rankings for comparator economies and the Iceland to connect a warehouse to electricity. Figure 4.2 How Iceland and comparator economies rank on the ease of getting electricity Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 35 GETTING ELECTRICITY Even more helpful than rankings on the ease of getting performers on these indicators may provide useful electricity may be the indicators underlying those benchmarks. rankings (table 4.1). And regional and global best Table 4.1 The ease of getting electricity in Iceland Best performer in Best performer Indicator Iceland DB2014 Iceland DB2013 OECD high income globally DB2014 DB2014 Rank 1 2 Iceland (1) Iceland (1) Procedures (number) 4 4 4 Economies* (3) 10 Economies* (3) Time (days) 22 22 Germany (17) Germany (17) Cost (% of income per capita) 14.4 14.9 Japan (0.0) Japan (0.0) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB201 3 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. * Two or more economies share the top ranking on this indicator. For a list of these economies, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 36 GETTING ELECTRICITY Obtaining an electricity connection is essential to safety in the connection process while keeping enable a business to conduct its most basic operations. connection costs reasonable, governments around the In many economies the connection process is world have worked to consolidate requirements for complicated by the multiple laws and regulations obtaining an electricity connection. What reforms in involved—covering service quality, general safety, getting electricity has Doing Business recorded in technical standards, procurement practices and Iceland (table 4.2)? internal wiring installations. In an effort to ensure Table 4.2 How has Iceland made getting electricity easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 37 GETTING ELECTRICITY What are the details? The indicators reported here for Iceland are based on a OBTAINING AN ELECTRICITY CONNECTION set of specific procedures—the steps that an entrepreneur must complete to get a warehouse connected to electricity by the local distribution City: Reykjavik utility—identified by Doing Business. Data are collected from the distribution utility, then completed and Name of Utility: Orkuveita Reykjavíkur verified by electricity regulatory agencies and independent professionals such as electrical engineers, The procedures are those that apply to a warehouse electrical contractors and construction companies. The and electricity connection matching the standard electricity distribution utility surveyed is the one assumptions used by Doing Business in collecting the serving the area (or areas) in which warehouses are data (see the section in this chapter on what the located. If there is a choice of distribution utilities, the indicators cover). The procedures, along with the one serving the largest number of customers is associated time and cost, are summarized below. selected. Summary of procedures for getting electricity in Iceland—and the time and cost Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete Submit application at Orkuveita Reykjavik and await inspection and receive estimate An application can be submitted online. The following documents are needed with the application: Siteplan of the warehouse in scale 1:500 - to see how it is located to the existing electricity system, location of electrical fuse/switch board - to see where the cable is coming into the warehouse and single line diagram of the electrical fuse/switch board. There is no notarization needed of the documents. There is no internal inspection. However, the electrician who is in charge for the internal wiring must be qualified (having the right examination) and be approved by the Icelandic Construction Authority (a governmental agency 1 responsible for the safety of electrical housing installation) and 7 calendar days no charge registered on a list. The Icelandic Construction Authority is now responsible for administration of law and regulations regarding Electrical Safety and took over these responsibilities from the Consumer Agency. The utility has this list and the list is renewed monthly. If the electrician applying for the 200A connection is not on the list, the utility refuses the application for connection. When a new customer applies for a new connection to OR's distribution system, he/she can apply for a supply contract with the sales department (OR) or the customer can inform the sales department that he/she wants to make a supply contract with another electricity company/supplier. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 38 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete Orkuveita Reykjavik inspects site of the warehouse An external inspection is conducted to confirm that the given information in the submitted documents and drawings is accurate. The external inspection is not necessary to prepare an estimate. There is no extra fee for the inspection, the cost is included in the application fee. It 5 calendar days no charge 2 is the main rule that someone from the customer's party is present during the inspection, in case that OR is having remarks on the site and the customer needs to fix them before the external connection works start. The customer pays the connection fee and awaits the completion of the external connection works When the customer has given all necessary documents/drawings to the utility and the site inspection confirms that it fulfills the requirement of the utility, then the utility sends the invoice to the customer. The customer can pay the connection fee only via a bank. The customer gets an invoice/giro from the bank. This is always before the external work is done. If the site inspection is according to given documents, then there should be no waiting time until external works can start. The external 14 calendar days ISK 684,354.0 3 connection works involve the following: the utility makes a ditch/trench from the nearest cable distribution cabinet to the warehouse's fuse board, a cable is laid in the trench and cable terminations are made to the cable end which is connected to the distribution cabinet (without fuse). The utility obtains the excavation permit during this step. All material for the external connection is provided by the utility. Frumherji installs the meter, electrician notifies Construction Authority The meter is installed when the customer requires it. It is installed by another company which is responsible for this service since this service was outsourced a few years ago. OR has outsourced the meter- department to Frumherji. Frumherji owns the meters and rents them to OR. There is no charge for the installation of the meter, this is included in the connection fee. The customer has no direct interaction with 4 Frumherji. When all connections are finished (electrical fuse board + 1 calendar day no charge distribution cabinet) and the meter is installed, then the current can start flowing. When the utility has done the connection of the warehouse to the distribution system, the electrician of the contractor who built the warehouse must fill out a form and send it to the Iceland Construction Authority which is now responsible for the safety of electrical housing installation. The utility also informs this agency that this house is now connected to the distribution system. The electricity can start flowing before the electrician sends the form to the Iceland Construction Authority. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 39 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete * Takes place simultaneously with another procedure. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 40 REGISTERING PROPERTY Ensuring formal property rights is fundamental. WHAT THE REGISTERING PROPERTY Effective administration of land is part of that. If INDICATORS MEASURE formal property transfer is too costly or complicated, formal titles might go informal again. And where property is informal or poorly Procedures to legally transfer title on administered, it has little chance of being immovable property (number) accepted as collateral for loans—limiting access to Preregistration (for example, checking for liens, finance. notarizing sales agreement, paying property transfer taxes) What do the indicators cover? Registration in the economy’s largest business Doing Business records the full sequence of city procedures necessary for a business to purchase property from another business and transfer the Postregistration (for example, filing title with the municipality) property title to the buyer’s name. The transaction is considered complete when it is opposable to Time required to complete each procedure third parties and when the buyer can use the (calendar days) property, use it as collateral for a bank loan or Does not include time spent gathering resell it. The ranking on the ease of registering information property is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its component indicators: procedures, Each procedure starts on a separate day. time and cost. Procedures that can be fully completed online are an exception to this rule. To make the data comparable across economies, Procedure considered completed once final several assumptions about the parties to the document is received transaction, the property and the procedures are used. No prior contact with officials The parties (buyer and seller): Cost required to complete each procedure (% of property value)  Are limited liability companies, 100% domestically and privately owned. Official costs only, no bribes  Are located in the economy’s largest No value added or capital gains taxes included business city. and no rezoning is required.  Have 50 employees each, all of whom are  Has no mortgages attached and has been nationals. under the same ownership for the past 10  Perform general commercial activities. years. The property (fully owned by the seller):  Consists of 557.4 square meters (6,000 square feet) of land and a 10-year-old, 2-story  Has a value of 50 times income per capita. warehouse of 929 square meters (10,000 The sale price equals the value. square feet). The warehouse is in good  Is registered in the land registry or cada- condition and complies with all safety stre, or both, and is free of title disputes. standards, building codes and legal requirements. There is no heating system. The  Is located in a periurban commercial zone, property will be transferred in its entirety. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 41 REGISTERING PROPERTY Where does the economy stand today? What does it take to complete a property transfer in procedures, takes 3.5 days and costs 2.4% of the Iceland? According to data collected by Doing property value (figure 5.1). Business, registering property there requires 3 Figure 5.1 What it takes to register property in Iceland Note: Time shown in the figure above may not reflect simultaneity of procedures. Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For more information on the methodology of the registering property indicators, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). For details on the procedures reflected here, see the summary at the end of this chapter. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 42 REGISTERING PROPERTY Globally, Iceland stands at 12 in the ranking of 189 regional average ranking provide other useful economies on the ease of registering property (figure information for assessing how easy it is for an 5.2). The rankings for comparator economies and the entrepreneur in Iceland to transfer property. Figure 5.2 How Iceland and comparator economies rank on the ease of registering property Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 43 REGISTERING PROPERTY What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over what is possible in making it easier to register time have had the best performance regionally or property. And changes in regional averages can show globally on the procedures, time or cost required to where Iceland is keeping up—and where it is falling complete a property transfer (figure 5.3) help show behind. Figure 5.3 Has registering property become easier over time? Procedures (number) Time (days) Doing Business 2014 Iceland 44 REGISTERING PROPERTY Cost (% of property value) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. For more information on “no practice” marks, see the data notes. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 45 REGISTERING PROPERTY Economies worldwide have been making it easier for have cut the time required substantially—enabling entrepreneurs to register and transfer property—such buyers to use or mortgage their property earlier. What as by computerizing land registries, introducing time property registration reforms has Doing Business limits for procedures and setting low fixed fees. Many recorded in Iceland (table 5.1)? Table 5.1 How has Iceland made registering property easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2005), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 46 REGISTERING PROPERTY What are the details? The indicators reported here are based on a set of STANDARD PROPERTY TRANSFER specific procedures—the steps that a buyer and seller must complete to transfer the property to the buyer’s name—identified by Doing Business through information collected from local property City: Reykjavik lawyers, notaries and property registries. These procedures are those that apply to a transaction Property Value: ISK 238,470,762 matching the standard assumptions used by Doing Business in collecting the data (see the section in The procedures, along with the associated time and this chapter on what the indicators cover). cost, are summarized below. Summary of procedures for registering property in Iceland—and the time and cost Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete ISK 1,900 each Buyer obtains the non-encumbrance certificate from the Land mortgage Registry certificate if completed at the The buyer would usually demand to receive a certificate of mortgages Registry's office and other possible rights and obligations in relation to the property. ISK 1,050 for Anyone can request a certificate in writing. It costs ISK 1,500 and it takes certificate from the one visit to the Icelandic Property Registry. Real-estate agencies have Property Registry on-line access to this information at a cost of ISK 850 per certificate. Other due diligence checks are performed using online databases of the ISK 2,200 for Property Registry and Land Registry under the Icelandic Property certificate of status Less than a day Registry. Some of the checks include: of properties 1 (online (i) The list of options, purchase rights, and warrants issued by the owned procedure) company specifying the name of the holder, rights or warrants issued, (eignastöðuvottor the date granted, the purchase price, and the position of the holder with ð)(ISK 500 if the company; obtained online) (ii) The address list of the locations of all land, buildings, and other ISK 3,500 improvements either leased or owned by the company; ownership history (iii) The status of properties owned (eignastöðuvottorð) and the history ISK 950 Certificate of properties owned (eignasöguvottorð). from the National Register Authorized real estate agent prepares and executes the sale- purchase agreement 1.5-2.5% of the property value 2 It is not mandatory to use an authorized real estate agent, but almost 1 day (real estate agent everyone does. The agent's fees will be around 1.5% and 2.5% of the fees) property value. The sale-purchase agreement is usually registered at the Property Registry if the property is not paid in full at the time of the Doing Business 2014 Iceland 47 Time to No. Procedure Cost to complete complete agreement. The deed is first signed when the property is paid in full. Registration of the sale-purchase agreement protects the rights of the purchaser. The total extra cost of registering the sale-purchase agreement is ISK 2,000. The process takes about 2 business days. In this case there is no need to register the sale-purchase agreement and it is not a formal requirement. The conditions for registry of the sale purchase agreement are that it contains the following information: (i) the name of the property as officially registered by the municipal authorities, (ii) the unique property reference number of the land and the property, (iii) the legal description set forth by the planning and building authorities and (iv) the land and the building’s number which has direct reference to its coordinates. This information can be obtained from the Land Registry office in the property’s district or from Icelandic Property Register (Cadaster authority). If an authorized real estate agent handles the sale this information is available to him via an electronic data and information system. It is common that the buyer notifies the insurance company. Insurance companies have electronic access to the database at Icelandic Property Register and there is a daily processing of the title of transfers. The title of the fire-insurance changes the same day as the transfer of title is registered. Transfer of a title is prepared and registered at the Magistrates office When the buyer has fulfilled his obligations in relation to the sale purchase agreement and the conditions for registrations, the transfer of ISK 2000 + 0.4% of title is prepared and registered at the Magistrates office. The deed shall the official real be delivered in two signed copies (including one copy on a special estate valuation 3 accredited paper). 1-2 days (usually lower than purchase price) for The documentation should include the deed signed by the seller and the Stamp Duty purchaser and certified by a notary public, or an attorney, a certified real- estate agent or two witnesses. In practice a notary public is hardly ever used. * Takes place simultaneously with another procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 48 GETTING CREDIT Two types of frameworks can facilitate access to WHAT THE GETTING CREDIT INDICATORS credit and improve its allocation: credit information MEASURE systems and borrowers and lenders in collateral and bankruptcy laws. Credit information systems enable lenders’ rights to view a potential borrower’s Strength of legal rights index (0–10) financial history (positive or negative)—valuable Rights of borrowers and lenders through information to consider when assessing risk. And collateral laws they permit borrowers to establish a good credit Protection of secured creditors’ rights through history that will allow easier access to credit. Sound bankruptcy laws collateral laws enable businesses to use their assets, especially movable property, as security to generate Depth of credit information index (0–6) capital—while strong creditors’ rights have been Scope and accessibility of credit information associated with higher ratios of private sector credit distributed by public credit registries and to GDP. private credit bureaus What do the indicators cover? Public credit registry coverage (% of adults) Doing Business assesses the sharing of credit Number of individuals and firms listed in information and the legal rights of borrowers and public credit registry as percentage of adult lenders with respect to secured transactions population through 2 sets of indicators. The depth of credit Private credit bureau coverage (% of adults) information index measures rules and practices Number of individuals and firms listed in affecting the coverage, scope and accessibility of largest private credit bureau as percentage of credit information available through a public credit adult population registry or a private credit bureau. The strength of legal rights index measures whether certain features that facilitate lending exist within the applicable collateral and bankruptcy laws. Doing Business uses case scenarios to determine the scope of the  Has up to 100 employees. secured transactions system, involving a secured  Is 100% domestically owned, as is the lender. borrower and a secured lender and examining legal The ranking on the ease of getting credit is based on restrictions on the use of movable collateral. These the percentile rankings on the sum of its component scenarios assume that the borrower: indicators: the depth of credit information index and  Is a private, incorporated, limited liability the strength of legal rights index. company.  Has its headquarters and only base of operations in the largest business city. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 49 GETTING CREDIT Where does the economy stand today? How well do the credit information system and Globally, Iceland stands at 42 in the ranking of 189 collateral and bankruptcy laws in Iceland facilitate economies on the ease of getting credit (figure 6.1). access to credit? The economy has a score of 5 on the The rankings for comparator economies and the depth of credit information index and a score of 7 on regional average ranking provide other useful the strength of legal rights index (see the summary of information for assessing how well regulations and scoring at the end of this chapter for details). Higher institutions in Iceland support lending and borrowing. scores indicate more credit information and stronger legal rights for borrowers and lenders. Figure 6.1 How Iceland and comparator economies rank on the ease of getting credit Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 50 GETTING CREDIT What are the changes over time? While the most recent Doing Business data reflect how institutions and regulations have been strengthened — well the credit information system and collateral and and where they have not (table 6.1). That can help bankruptcy laws in Iceland support lending and identify where the potential for improvement is borrowing today, data over time can help show where greatest. Table 6.1 The ease of getting credit in Iceland over time By Doing Business report year Indicator DB2005 DB2006 DB2007 DB2008 DB2009 DB2010 DB2011 DB2012 DB2013 DB2014 Rank .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 40 42 Strength of legal rights 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 index (0-10) Depth of credit 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 information index (0-6) Public registry coverage 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 (% of adults) Private bureau 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 coverage (% of adults) Note: n.a. = not applicable (the economy was not included in Doing Business for that year). DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 51 GETTING CREDIT One way to put an economy’s score on the getting shows the number of economies with this score in credit indicators into context is to see where the 2013 as well as the regional average score. Figure 6.3 economy stands in the distribution of scores across shows the same thing for the depth of credit economies. Figure 6.2 highlights the score on the information index. strength of legal rights index for Iceland in 2013 and Figure 6.2 How strong are legal rights for borrowers Figure 6.3 How much credit information is shared— and lenders? and how widely? Number of economies with each score on strength of legal Number of economies with each score on depth of credit rights index (0–10), 2013 information index (0–6), 2013 Note: Higher scores indicate that collateral and bankruptcy Note: Higher scores indicate the availability of more credit laws are better designed to facilitate access to credit. information, from either a credit registry or a credit bureau, Source: Doing Business database. to facilitate lending decisions. Regional averages for the depth of credit information index exclude economies with no credit registry or credit bureau. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 52 GETTING CREDIT When economies strengthen the legal rights of lenders credit information, they can increase entrepreneurs’ and borrowers under collateral and bankruptcy laws, access to credit. What credit reforms has Doing and increase the scope, coverage and accessibility of Business recorded in Iceland (table 6.2)? Table 6.2 How has Iceland made getting credit easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2005), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 53 GETTING CREDIT What are the details? The getting credit indicators reported here for Iceland The data on the legal rights of borrowers and lenders are based on detailed information collected in that are gathered through a survey of financial lawyers and economy. The data on credit information sharing are verified through analysis of laws and regulations as collected through a survey of a credit registry and/or well as public sources of information on collateral and credit bureau (if one exists). To construct the depth of bankruptcy laws. For the strength of legal rights index, credit information index, a score of 1 is assigned for a score of 1 is assigned for each of 8 aspects related to each of 6 features of the credit registry or credit legal rights in collateral law and 2 aspects in bureau (see summary of scoring below). bankruptcy law. Summary of scoring for the getting credit indicators in Iceland OECD high income OECD high income Indicator Iceland average average Strength of legal rights index (0-10) 7 7 Depth of credit information index (0-6) 5 5 Public registry coverage (% of adults) 0.0 42.9 Private bureau coverage (% of adults) 100.0 73.9 Note: In cases where an economy’s regional classification is “OECD high income,” regional averages above are o nly displayed once. Regional averages for the depth of credit information index exclude economies with no credit registry or credit bureau. Regional averages for the credit registry coverage exclude economies with no credit registry. Regional averages for the credit bureau coverage exclude economies with no credit bureau. Strength of legal rights index (0–10) Index score: 7 Can any business use movable assets as collateral while keeping possession of the assets; and Yes any financial institution accept such assets as collateral ? Does the law allow businesses to grant a non possessory security right in a single category of Yes movable assets, without requiring a specific description of collateral? Does the law allow businesses to grant a non possessory security right in substantially all of No its assets, without requiring a specific description of collateral? May a security right extend to future or after-acquired assets, and may it extend automatically Yes to the products, proceeds or replacements of the original assets ? Is a general description of debts and obligations permitted in collateral agreements; can all types of debts and obligations be secured between parties; and can the collateral agreement Yes include a maximum amount for which the assets are encumbered? Is a collateral registry in operation, that is unified geographically and by asset type, with an No electronic database indexed by debtor's names? Doing Business 2014 Iceland 54 Strength of legal rights index (0–10) Index score: 7 Are secured creditors paid first (i.e. before tax claims and employee claims) when a debtor Yes defaults outside an insolvency procedure? Are secured creditors paid first (i.e. before tax claims and employee claims) when a business is Yes liquidated? Are secured creditors either not subject to an automatic stay on enforcement when a debtor enters a court-supervised reorganization procedure, or does the law provide secured No creditors with grounds for relief from an automatic stay or/and sets a time limit to it? Does the law allow parties to agree in a collateral agreement that the lender may enforce its Yes security right out of court, at the time a security interest is created? Depth of credit information index (0–6) Credit bureau Credit registry Index score: 5 Are data on both firms and individuals distributed? Yes No 1 Are both positive and negative data distributed? Yes No 1 Does the registry distribute credit information from retailers, trade creditors or utility companies as well as Yes No 1 financial institutions? Are more than 2 years of historical credit information No No 0 distributed? Is data on all loans below 1% of income per capita Yes No 1 distributed? Is it guaranteed by law that borrowers can inspect Yes No 1 their data in the largest credit registry? Note: An economy receives a score of 1 if there is a "yes" to either private bureau or public registry. Credit bureau Credit registry Coverage (% of adults) (% of adults) Number of firms 70,666 0 Number of individuals 299,420 0 Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 55 PROTECTING INVESTORS Protecting investors matters for the ability of WHAT THE PROTECTING INVESTORS companies to raise the capital they need to grow, INDICATORS MEASURE innovate, diversify and compete. If the laws do not protect minority shareholders, investors may be reluctant to provide funding to companies through Extent of disclosure index (0–10) the purchase of shares unless they become the Approval process for related-party controlling shareholders. Effective regulations define transactions related-party transactions precisely, promote clear Disclosure requirements in case of related- and efficient disclosure requirements, require party transactions shareholder participation in major decisions of the company and set detailed standards of accountability Extent of director liability index (0–10) for company insiders. Ability of minority shareholders to file a direct or derivative lawsuit What do the indicators cover? Ability of minority shareholders to hold Doing Business measures the strength of minority interested parties and members of the shareholder protections against directors’ use of approving body liable for prejudicial related- corporate assets for personal gain—or self-dealing. party transactions The indicators distinguish 3 dimensions of investor protections: transparency of related-party Available legal remedies (damages, repayment of profits, fines, imprisonment and rescission transactions (extent of disclosure index), liability for of the transaction) self-dealing (extent of director liability index) and minority shareholders’ access to evidence before and Ease of shareholder suits index (0–10) during trial (ease of shareholder suits index). The Access to internal corporate documents ranking on the strength of investor protection index is (directly or through a government inspector) the simple average of the percentile rankings on these 3 indices. To make the data comparable across Documents and information available during trial economies, a case study uses several assumptions about the business and the transaction. Strength of investor protection index (0–10) The business (Buyer): Simple average of the extent of disclosure, extent of director liability and ease of  Is a publicly traded corporation listed on the shareholder suits indices economy’s most important stock exchange (or at least a large private company with multiple shareholders). the company purchase used trucks from another company he owns.  Has a board of directors and a chief executive officer (CEO) who may legally act on behalf of  The price is higher than the going price for used Buyer where permitted, even if this is not trucks, but the transaction goes forward. specifically required by law.  All required approvals are obtained, and all The transaction involves the following details: required disclosures made, though the transaction is prejudicial to Buyer.  Mr. James, a director and the majority shareholder of the company, proposes that  Shareholders sue the interested parties and the members of the board of directors. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 56 PROTECTING INVESTORS Where does the economy stand today? How strong are investor protections against self- index (figure 7.1). While the indicator does not dealing in Iceland? The economy has a score of 6.0 on measure all aspects related to the protection of the strength of investor protection index, with a higher minority investors, a higher ranking does indicate that score indicating stronger protections (see the an economy’s regulations offer stronger investor summary of scoring at the end of this chapter for protections against self-dealing in the areas measured. details). Globally, Iceland stands at 52 in the ranking of 189 economies on the strength of investor protection Figure 7.1 How Iceland and comparator economies rank on the strength of investor protection index Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 57 PROTECTING INVESTORS What are the changes over time? While the most recent Doing Business data reflect how ranking on the strength of investor protection index well regulations in Iceland protect minority investors over time shows whether the economy is slipping today, data over time show whether the protections behind other economies in investor protections—or have been strengthened (table 7.1). And the global surpassing them. Table 7.1 The strength of investor protections in Iceland over time By Doing Business report year Indicator DB2006 DB2007 DB2008 DB2009 DB2010 DB2011 DB2012 DB2013 DB2014 Rank .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 51 52 Extent of disclosure 4 4 5 5 5 5 7 7 7 index (0-10) Extent of director 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 liability index (0-10) Ease of shareholder 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 suits index (0-10) Strength of investor protection index (0- 5.0 5.0 5.3 5.3 5.3 5.3 6.0 6.0 6.0 10) Note: n.a. = not applicable (the economy was not included in Doing Business for that year). DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 58 PROTECTING INVESTORS One way to put an economy’s scores on the protecting shows the number of economies with this score in investors indicators into context is to see where the 2013 as well as the regional average score. Figure 7.3 economy stands in the distribution of scores across applies to the extent of director liability index, and economies. Figure 7.2 highlights the score on the figure 7.4 to the ease of shareholder suits index. extent of disclosure index for Iceland in 2013 and Figure 7.2 How strong are disclosure requirements? Figure 7.3 How strong is the liability regime for directors? Number of economies with each score on the extent of Number of economies with each score on the extent of director liability index (0–10), 2013 disclosure index (0–10), 2013 Note: Higher scores indicate greater liability of directors. Note: Higher scores indicate greater disclosure. Source: Doing Business database. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 59 PROTECTING INVESTORS Figure 7.4 How easy is accessing internal corporate documents? Number of economies with each score on the ease of shareholder suits index (0–10), 2013 Note: Higher scores indicate greater minority shareholder access to evidence before and during trial. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 60 PROTECTING INVESTORS The scores recorded over time for Iceland on the changes over time in the regional average score on strength of investor protection index may also be this index. revealing (figure 7.5). Equally interesting may be the Figure 7.5 Have investor protections become stronger over time? Strength of investor protection index (0–10) Note: The higher the score, the stronger the protections. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 61 PROTECTING INVESTORS Economies with the strongest protections of minority reasonable time. As a result, reforms to strengthen investors from self-dealing require detailed disclosure investor protections may move ahead on different and define clear duties for directors. They also have fronts—such as through new or amended company well-functioning courts and up-to-date procedural laws, securities regulations or civil procedure rules. rules that give minority shareholders the means to What investor protection reforms has Doing Business prove their case and obtain a judgment within a recorded in Iceland (table 7.2)? Table 7.2 How has Iceland strengthened investor protections—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Iceland strengthened investor protections by introducing new DB2012 requirements relating to the approval of transactions between interested parties. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2006), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 62 PROTECTING INVESTORS What are the details? The protecting investors indicators reported here for ease of shareholder suits indices, scores are assigned Iceland are based on detailed information collected to each based on a range of conditions relating to through a survey of corporate and securities lawyers disclosure, director liability and shareholder suits in a about securities regulations, company laws and court standard case study transaction (see the data notes at rules of evidence and procedure. To construct the the end of this chapter). The summary below shows extent of disclosure, extent of director liability and the details underlying the scores for Iceland. Summary of scoring for the protecting investors indicators in Iceland OECD high OECD high income Indicator Iceland income average average Extent of disclosure index (0-10) 7 7 Extent of director liability index (0-10) 5 5 Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) 6 7 Strength of investor protection index (0-10) 6.0 6.2 Note: In cases where an economy’s regional classification is “OECD high income,” regional averages above are only displayed once. Score Score description Extent of disclosure index (0-10) 7 Both board of directors and What corporate body provides legally sufficient 3 shareholders meeting and Mr. James approval for the transaction? is not allowed to vote Whether disclosure of the conflict of interest by Mr. Existence of a conflict without any 1 James to the board of directors is required? specifics Whether immediate disclosure of the transaction to 1 Disclosure on the transaction only the public and/or shareholders is required? Whether disclosure of the transaction in published 1 Disclosure on the transaction only periodic filings (annual reports) is required? Whether an external body must review the terms of 1 Yes the transaction before it takes place? Extent of director liability index (0-10) 5 Whether shareholders can sue directly or derivatively for the damage that the Buyer-Seller transaction 1 Yes causes to the company? Whether shareholders can hold Mr. James liable for Liable for negligence or influencing the damage that the Buyer-Seller transaction causes 1 the approval of the transaction to the company? Whether shareholders can hold members of the approving body liable for the damage that the Buyer- 1 Liable for negligence Seller transaction causes to the company? Doing Business 2014 Iceland 63 Score Score description Possible when the transaction is Whether a court can void the transaction upon a 1 oppressive or prejudicial to minority successful claim by a shareholder plaintiff? shareholders Whether Mr. James pays damages for the harm caused to the company upon a successful claim by 1 Yes the shareholder plaintiff? Whether Mr. James repays profits made from the transaction upon a successful claim by the 0 No shareholder plaintiff? Whether fines and imprisonment can be applied 0 No against Mr. James? Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) 6 Whether shareholders owning 10% or less of Buyer's shares can inspect transaction documents before 0 No filing suit? Whether shareholders owning 10% or less of Buyer's shares can request an inspector to investigate the 0 No transaction? Whether the plaintiff can obtain any documents from Information that directly proves 2 the defendant and witnesses during trial? specific facts in the plaintiff’s claim Whether the plaintiff can request categories of documents from the defendant without identifying 1 Yes specific ones? Whether the plaintiff can directly question the 2 Yes, without approval from the judge defendant and witnesses during trial? Whether the level of proof required for civil suits is 1 Yes lower than that of criminal cases? Strength of investor protection index (0-10) 6.0 Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 64 PAYING TAXES Taxes are essential. They fund the public amenities, WHAT THE PAYING TAXES INDICATORS infrastructure and services that are crucial for a MEASURE properly functioning economy. But the level of tax rates needs to be carefully chosen—and needless Tax payments for a manufacturing company complexity in tax rules avoided. According to in 2012 (number per year adjusted for Doing Business data, in economies where it is more electronic and joint filing and payment) difficult and costly to pay taxes, larger shares of economic activity end up in the informal sector — Total number of taxes and contributions paid, where businesses pay no taxes at all. including consumption taxes (value added tax, sales tax or goods and service tax) What do the indicators cover? Method and frequency of filing and payment Using a case scenario, Doing Business measures Time required to comply with 3 major taxes the taxes and mandatory contributions that a (hours per year) medium-size company must pay in a given year as well as the administrative burden of paying taxes Collecting information and computing the tax and contributions. This case scenario uses a set of payable financial statements and assumptions about Completing tax return forms, filing with transactions made over the year. Information is proper agencies also compiled on the frequency of filing and Arranging payment or withholding payments as well as time taken to comply with tax laws. The ranking on the ease of paying taxes is Preparing separate tax accounting books, if the simple average of the percentile rankings on required its component indicators: number of annual Total tax rate (% of profit before all taxes) payments, time and total tax rate, with a threshold 1 Profit or corporate income tax being applied to the total tax rate. To make the data comparable across economies, several Social contributions and labor taxes paid by assumptions about the business and the taxes and the employer contributions are used. Property and property transfer taxes  TaxpayerCo is a medium-size business that Dividend, capital gains and financial started operations on January 1, 2011. transactions taxes  The business starts from the same financial Waste collection, vehicle, road and other taxes position in each economy. All the taxes  Taxes and mandatory contributions include and mandatory contributions paid during corporate income tax, turnover tax and all the second year of operation are recorded. labor taxes and contributions paid by the  Taxes and mandatory contributions are company. measured at all levels of government.  A range of standard deductions and exemptions are also recorded. 1 The threshold is defined as the highest total tax rate among the top 15% of economies in the ranking on the total tax rate. It is calculated and adjusted on a yearly basis. The threshold is not based on any economic theory of an “optimal tax rate” that minimizes di stortions or maximizes efficiency in the tax system of an economy overall. Instead, it is mainly empirical in nature, set at the lower end of the distribution of tax rates levied on medium-size enterprises in the manufacturing sector as observed through the paying taxes indicators. This reduces the bias in the indicators toward economies that do not need to levy significant taxes on companies like the Doing Business standardized case study company because they raise public revenue in other ways—for example, through taxes on foreign companies, through taxes on sectors other than manufacturing or from natural resources (all of which are outside the scope of the methodology). This year’s threshold is 25.5%. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 65 PAYING TAXES Where does the economy stand today? What is the administrative burden of complying with Globally, Iceland stands at 37 in the ranking of 189 taxes in Iceland—and how much do firms pay in taxes? economies on the ease of paying taxes (figure 8.1). The On average, firms make 26 tax payments a year, spend rankings for comparator economies and the regional 140 hours a year filing, preparing and paying taxes and average ranking provide other useful information for pay total taxes amounting to 29.9% of profit (see the assessing the tax compliance burden for businesses in summary at the end of this chapter for details). Iceland. Figure 8.1 How Iceland and comparator economies rank on the ease of paying taxes Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 66 PAYING TAXES What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over show what is possible in easing the administrative time have had the best performance regionally or burden of tax compliance. And changes in regional globally on the number of payments or the time averages can show where Iceland is keeping up—and required to prepare and file taxes (figure 8.2) help where it is falling behind. Figure 8.2 Has paying taxes become easier over time? Payments (number per year) Time (hours per year) Doing Business 2014 Iceland 67 PAYING TAXES Total tax rate (% of profit) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB201 3 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. DB2013 rankings reflect changes to the methodology. For all economies with a total tax rate below the threshold of 25.5% applied in DB2014, the total tax rate is set at 25.5% for the purpose of calculating the ranking on the ease of paying taxes. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 68 PAYING TAXES Economies around the world have made paying taxes concrete results. Some economies simplifying tax faster and easier for businesses—such as by payment and reducing rates have seen tax revenue consolidating filings, reducing the frequency of rise. What tax reforms has Doing Business recorded in payments or offering electronic filing and payment. Iceland (table 8.1)? Many have lowered tax rates. Changes have brought Table 8.1 How has Iceland made paying taxes easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Iceland relieved the tax burden on companies by reducing the DB2010 corporate income tax rate from 18% to 15%. Iceland increased the corporate income tax rate from 15% to DB2011 18% and raised social security and pension contribution rates. Iceland made paying taxes easier and less costly for firms by DB2012 abolishing a tax. DB2013 Iceland increased the corporate income tax rate. Iceland made paying taxes easier for companies by reducing employers’ social security contribution rate and abolishing the DB2014 weight distance tax—though it also introduced a new rehabilitation fund contribution. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2006), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 69 PAYING TAXES What are the details? The indicators reported here for Iceland are based LOCATION OF STANDARDIZED COMPANY on a standard set of taxes and contributions that would be paid by the case study company used by Doing Business in collecting the data (see the City: Reykjavik section in this chapter on what the indicators cover). Tax practitioners are asked to review standard financial statements as well as a standard list of transactions that the company completed The taxes and contributions paid are listed in the during the year. Respondents are asked how much summary below, along with the associated number of in taxes and mandatory contributions the business payments, time and tax rate. must pay and what the process is for doing so. Summary of tax rates and administrative burden in Iceland OECD high income OECD high income Indicator Iceland average average Payments (number per year) 26 12 Time (hours per year) 140 175 Profit tax (%) 9.0 16.1 Labor tax and contributions (%) 18.0 23.1 Other taxes (%) 2.9 2.0 Total tax rate (% profit) 29.9 41.3 Note: In cases where an economy’s regional classification is “OECD high income,” regional averages above are only displayed once. Total tax Notes on Tax or mandatory Payments Notes on Time Statutory Tax base rate (% of total tax contribution (number) payments (hours) tax rate profit) rate Corporate income tax taxable 1 online filing 40 20% 9 (State income tax) profit gross Pension contributions 12 0 8% 9 salaries Social security gross 1 online filing 60 7.79% 8.8 contributions salaries Doing Business 2014 Iceland 70 Total tax Notes on Tax or mandatory Payments Notes on Time Statutory Tax base rate (% of total tax contribution (number) payments (hours) tax rate profit) rate assessed 1.65% + Property tax 1 online filing 0 value of 2.6 0.115% property interest included in Tax on interest 0 0 20% 0.5 income other taxes ISK 134 + building ISK 199/m2 Municipal tax (water and area in 6 0 and ISK 0.3 sewage) square 8152 + ISK meters 316/m2 Fixed fee of ISK 49.229 pr. taxable period (98,458 pr. year) for the first 3.500 kg.; vehicle Vehicle tax 2 0 ISK 2,10 for 0.1 weight each kg over 3.500 kg. not exceeding 77.495 pr. taxable period (154.990 pr. year.) gross Rehabilitation contributions 0 paid jointly 0 0.13% 0.1 salaries ISK 700 pr. owned Disposal charge 0 paid jointly 0 vehicle pr. 0 vehicle Year Stamp duty on property small 1 0 0.4% transactio 0 transfer amount n value included small Fuel tax 1 0 into fuel 0 amount price Doing Business 2014 Iceland 71 Total tax Notes on Tax or mandatory Payments Notes on Time Statutory Tax base rate (% of total tax contribution (number) payments (hours) tax rate profit) rate value not Value added tax (VAT) 1 online filing 40 25.5% 0 added included Totals 26 140 29.9 Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 72 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS In today’s globalized world, making trade between WHAT THE TRADING ACROSS BORDERS economies easier is increasingly important for INDICATORS MEASURE business. Excessive document requirements, burdensome customs procedures, inefficient port operations and inadequate infrastructure all lead to Documents required to export and import extra costs and delays for exporters and importers, (number) stifling trade potential. Research shows that Bank documents exporters in developing countries gain more from Customs clearance documents a 10% drop in their trading costs than from a similar reduction in the tariffs applied to their Port and terminal handling documents products in global markets. Transport documents What do the indicators cover? Time required to export and import (days) Doing Business measures the time and cost Obtaining, filling out and submitting all the (excluding tariffs and the time and cost for sea documents transport) associated with exporting and importing Inland transport and handling a standard shipment of goods by sea transport, and the number of documents necessary to Customs clearance and inspections complete the transaction. The indicators cover Port and terminal handling procedural requirements such as documentation Does not include sea transport time requirements and procedures at customs and other regulatory agencies as well as at the port. They also Cost required to export and import (US$ per cover trade logistics, including the time and cost of container) inland transport to the largest business city. The All documentation ranking on the ease of trading across borders is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its Inland transport and handling component indicators: documents, time and cost Customs clearance and inspections to export and import. Port and terminal handling To make the data comparable across economies, Official costs only, no bribes Doing Business uses several assumptions about the business and the traded goods. The business: military items.  Is of medium size and employs 60 people.  Do not require refrigeration or any other special environment.  Is located in the periurban area of the economy’s largest business city.  Do not require any special phytosanitary or environmental safety standards other than  Is a private, limited liability company, accepted international standards. domestically owned, formally registered and operating under commercial laws and  Are one of the economy’s leading export or regulations of the economy. import products. The traded goods:  Are transported in a dry-cargo, 20-foot full container load.  Are not hazardous nor do they include Doing Business 2014 Iceland 73 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS Where does the economy stand today? What does it take to export or import in Iceland? Globally, Iceland stands at 50 in the ranking of 189 According to data collected by Doing Business, economies on the ease of trading across borders exporting a standard container of goods requires 4 (figure 9.1). The rankings for comparator economies documents, takes 10 days and costs $1530. Importing and the regional average ranking provide other useful the same container of goods requires 4 documents, information for assessing how easy it is for a business takes 9 days and costs $1620 (see the summary of in Iceland to export and import goods. procedures and documents at the end of this chapter for details). Figure 9.1 How Iceland and comparator economies rank on the ease of trading across borders Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 74 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over possible in making it easier to trade across borders. time have had the best performance regionally or And changes in regional averages can show where globally on the documents, time or cost required to Iceland is keeping up—and where it is falling behind. export or import (figure 9.2) help show what is Figure 9.2 Has trading across borders become easier over time? Documents to export (number) Time to export (days) Doing Business 2014 Iceland 75 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS Cost to export (US$ per container) Documents to import (number) Doing Business 2014 Iceland 76 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS Time to import (days) Cost to import (US$ per container) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB201 3 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 77 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS In economies around the world, trading across borders systems. These changes help improve the trading as measured by Doing Business has become faster and environment and boost firms’ international easier over the years. Governments have introduced competitiveness. What trade reforms has Doing tools to facilitate trade—including single windows, Business recorded in Iceland (table 9.1)? risk-based inspections and electronic data interchange Table 9.1 How has Iceland made trading across borders easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2006), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 78 TRADING ACROSS BORDERS What are the details? The indicators reported here for Iceland are based LOCATION OF STANDARDIZED COMPANY on a set of specific procedural requirements for trading a standard shipment of goods by ocean transport (see the section in this chapter on what City: Reykjavik the indicators cover). Information on the procedures as well as the required documents and the time and cost to complete each procedure is The procedural requirements, and the associated time collected from local freight forwarders, shipping and cost, for exporting and importing a standard lines, customs brokers, port officials and banks. shipment of goods are listed in the summary below, along with the required documents. Summary of procedures and documents for trading across borders in Iceland OECD high income OECD high income Indicator Iceland average average Documents to export (number) 4 4 Time to export (days) 10 11 Cost to export (US$ per container) 1,530 1,070 Documents to import (number) 4 4 Time to import (days) 9 10 Cost to import (US$ per container) 1,620 1,090 Note: In cases where an economy’s regional classification is “OECD high income,” regional averages above are only displayed once. Procedures to export Time (days) Cost (US$) Documents preparation 5 240 Customs clearance and technical control 1 50 Ports and terminal handling 3 605 Inland transportation and handling 1 635 Totals 10 1,530 Procedures to import Time (days) Cost (US$) Documents preparation 5 330 Doing Business 2014 Iceland 79 Procedures to import Time (days) Cost (US$) Customs clearance and technical control 1 50 Ports and terminal handling 2 605 Inland transportation and handling 1 635 Totals 9 1,620 Documents to export Documents to import Bill of lading Bill of lading Commercial Invoice Commercial invoice Customs export declaration Customs import declaration Packing List Packing list Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 80 ENFORCING CONTRACTS Effective commercial dispute resolution has many WHAT THE ENFORCING CONTRACTS benefits. Courts are essential for entrepreneurs INDICATORS MEASURE because they interpret the rules of the market and protect economic rights. Efficient and transparent Procedures to enforce a contract through courts encourage new business relationships the courts (number) because businesses know they can rely on the courts if a new customer fails to pay. Speedy trials Steps to file and serve the case are essential for small enterprises, which may lack Steps for trial and judgment the resources to stay in business while awaiting the outcome of a long court dispute. Steps to enforce the judgment Time required to complete procedures What do the indicators cover? (calendar days) Doing Business measures the efficiency of the Time to file and serve the case judicial system in resolving a commercial dispute before local courts. Following the step-by-step Time for trial and obtaining judgment evolution of a standardized case study, it collects Time to enforce the judgment data relating to the time, cost and procedural complexity of resolving a commercial lawsuit. The Cost required to complete procedures (% of ranking on the ease of enforcing contracts is the claim) simple average of the percentile rankings on its Average attorney fees component indicators: procedures, time and cost. Court costs The dispute in the case study involves the breach Enforcement costs of a sales contract between 2 domestic businesses. The case study assumes that the court hears an expert on the quality of the goods in dispute. This distinguishes the case from simple debt enforcement. To make the data comparable across economies, Doing Business uses several assumptions about the case:  The seller and buyer are located in the economy’s largest business city.  The dispute on the quality of the goods requires an expert opinion.  The buyer orders custom-made goods, then fails to pay.  The judge decides in favor of the seller; there is no appeal.  The seller sues the buyer before a competent court.  The seller enforces the judgment through a public sale of the buyer’s movable assets.  The value of the claim is 200% of income per capita.  The seller requests a pretrial attachment to secure the claim. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 81 ENFORCING CONTRACTS Where does the economy stand today? How efficient is the process of resolving a commercial Globally, Iceland stands at 3 in the ranking of 189 dispute through the courts in Iceland? According to economies on the ease of enforcing contracts (figure data collected by Doing Business, contract enforcement 10.1). The rankings for comparator economies and the takes 417 days, costs 9.0% of the value of the claim regional average ranking provide other useful and requires 27 procedures (see the summary at the benchmarks for assessing the efficiency of contract end of this chapter for details). enforcement in Iceland. Figure 10.1 How Iceland and comparator economies rank on the ease of enforcing contracts Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 82 ENFORCING CONTRACTS What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over help show what is possible in improving the efficiency time have had the best performance regionally or of contract enforcement. And changes in regional globally on the number of steps, time or cost required averages can show where Iceland is keeping up—and to enforce a contract through the courts (figure 10.2) where it is falling behind. Figure 10.2 Has enforcing contracts become easier over time? Time (days) Cost (% of claim) Doing Business 2014 Iceland 83 ENFORCING CONTRACTS Procedures (number) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 84 ENFORCING CONTRACTS Economies in all regions have improved contract often work on reducing backlogs by introducing enforcement in recent years. A judiciary can be periodic reviews to clear inactive cases from the docket improved in different ways. Higher-income economies and by making procedures faster. What reforms tend to look for ways to enhance efficiency by making it easier (or more difficult) to enforce contracts introducing new technology. Lower-income economies has Doing Business recorded in Iceland (table 10.1)? Table 10.1 How has Iceland made enforcing contracts easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2005), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 85 ENFORCING CONTRACTS What are the details? The indicators reported here for Iceland are based COURT NAME on a set of specific procedural steps required to resolve a standardized commercial dispute through the courts (see the section in this chapter City: Reykjavik on what the indicators cover). These procedures, and the time and cost of completing them, are Claim Value LCU: 8713222 identified through study of the codes of civil procedure and other court regulations, as well as Court Name: Reykjavík District Court through surveys completed by local litigation lawyers (and, in a quarter of the economies The procedures for resolving a commercial lawsuit, and covered by Doing Business, by judges as well). the associated time and cost, are listed in the summary below. Summary of procedures for enforcing a contract in Iceland—and the time and cost OECD high income OECD high income Indicator Iceland average average Time (days) 417 529 529 Filing and service 45 Trial and judgment 292 Enforcement of judgment 80 Cost (% of claim) 9.0 21.0 21.0 Attorney cost (% of claim) 5.9 Court cost (% of claim) 2.1 Enforcement Cost (% of claim) 1.0 Procedures (number) 27 31 31 Note: In cases where an economy’s regional classification is “OECD high income,” regional averages above are only displayed once. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 86 ENFORCING CONTRACTS No. Procedure Filing and service: Plaintiff requests payment: Plaintiff or his lawyer asks Defendant orally or in writing to comply with the 1 contract. 2 Plaintiff’s hiring of lawyer: Plaintiff hires a lawyer to represent him before the court. Plaintiff’s filing of summons and complaint: Plaintiff files his summons and complaint with the court, orally * or in writing. * Plaintiff’s payment of court fees: Plaintiff pays court duties, stamp duties, or any other type of co urt fee. Registration of court case: The court administration registers the lawsuit or court case. This includes 3 assigning a reference number to the lawsuit or court case. Assignment of court case to a judge: The court case is assigned to a specific judge through a random * procedure, automated system, ruling of an administrative judge, court officer, etc. Delivery of summons and complaint to person authorized to perform service of process on Defendant: 4 The judge or a court officer delivers the summons to a summoning office, officer, or authorized person (including Plaintiff), for service of process on Defendant. First attempt at physical delivery: A first attempt to physically deliver summons and complaint to 5 Defendant is successful in the majority of cases. * Proof of service: Plaintiff submits proof of service to court. Trial and judgment: Defendant’s filing of defense or answer to Plaintiff’s claim: Defendant files a written pleading which includes his defense or answer on the merits of the case. Defendant's written answer may or may not 6 include witness statements, expert statements, the documents Defendant relies on as evidence and the legal authori Deadline for Plaintiff to answer Defendant's defense or answer: Judge sets the deadline by which Plaintiff 7 will be allowed to answer Defendant's defense or answer. Court appointment of independent expert: Judge appoints, either at the parties' request or at his own * initiative, an independent expert to decide whether the quality of the goods Plaintiff delivered to Defendant is adequate. (see assumption 6-b of this case) Notification of court-appointment of independent expert: The court notifies both parties that the court is 8 appointing an independent expert. (see assumption 6-b of this case) Delivery of expert report by court-appointed expert: The independent expert appointed by the court * delivers his or her expert report to the court. (see assumption 6-b of this case) * Setting of date(s) for oral hearing or trial: The judge sets the date(s) for the oral hearing or trial. * List of (expert) witnesses: The parties file a list of (expert) witnesses with the court. (see assumption 6-a) Doing Business 2014 Iceland 87 No. Procedure Summoning of (expert) witnesses: The court summons (expert) witnesses to appear in court for the oral 9 hearing or trial. (see assumption 6-a) Adjournments: Court proceedings are delayed because one or both parties request and obtain an 10 adjournment to prepare for the oral hearing or trial. Oral hearing (prevalent in civil law): The parties argue the merits of the case at an oral hearing before the 11 judge. Witnesses and a court-appointed independent expert may be heard and questioned at the oral hearing. Final arguments: The parties present their final factual and legal arguments to the court either by oral * presentation or by a written submission. 12 Notification of judgment in court: The parties are notified of the judgment at a court hearing. 13 Writing of judgment: The judge produces a written copy of the judgment. Registration of judgment: The court office registers the judgment after receiving a written copy of the 14 judgment. Appeal period: By law, Defendant has the opportunity to appeal the judgment during a period specified in 15 the law. Defendant decides not to appeal. Judgment becomes final the day the appeal period ends. Reimbursement by Defendant of Plaintiff's court fees: The judgment obliges Defendant to reimburse 16 Plaintiff for the court fees Plaintiff has advanced, because Defendant has lost the case. Enforcement of judgment: Plaintiff’s hiring of lawyer: Plaintiff hires a lawyer to enforce the judgment or continues to be represented * by a lawyer during the enforcement of judgment phase. Plaintiff's approaching of court enforcement officer or (private) bailiff to enforce the judgment: To enforce 17 the judgment, Plaintiff approaches a court enforcement officer such as a court bailiff or sheriff, or a private bailiff. Plaintiff’s request for enforcement order: Plaintiff applies to the court to obtain the enforcement o rder * ('seal' on judgment). Plaintiff’s advancement of enforcement fees: Plaintiff pays the fees related to the enforcement of the 18 judgment. Request to Defendant to comply voluntarily with judgment: Plaintiff, a court enforcement officer or a 19 (private) bailiff requests Defendant to voluntarily comply with the judgment, giving Defendant a last chance to comply voluntarily with the judgment. Plaintiff’s identification of Defendant's assets for attachment: Plaintiff identifies Defendant's assets for 20 attachment. Attachment: Defendant’s movable goods are attached (physically or by registering, marking or separating 21 assets). Call for public auction: The judge calls a public auction by, for example, advertising or publication in the 22 newspapers. 23 Sale through public auction: The Defendant’s movable property is sold at public auction. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 88 No. Procedure 24 Judge's decision on bids: The judge determines the adequacy of the bids presented at public auction. Distribution of proceeds: The proceeds of the public auction are distributed to various creditors (including 25 Plaintiff), according to the rules of priority. Reimbursement of Plaintiff’s enforcement fees: Defendant reimburses Plaintiff's enforcement fees which 26 Plaintiff had advanced previously. 27 Payment: Court orders that the proceeds of the public auction or the direct sale be delivered to Plaintiff. * Not counted in the total number of procedures. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 89 RESOLVING INSOLVENCY A robust bankruptcy system functions as a filter, WHAT THE RESOLVING INSOLVENCY ensuring the survival of economically efficient companies and reallocating the resources of INDICATORS MEASURE inefficient ones. Fast and cheap insolvency proceedings result in the speedy return of Time required to recover debt (years) businesses to normal operation and increase Measured in calendar years returns to creditors. By improving the expectations of creditors and debtors about the outcome of Appeals and requests for extension are insolvency proceedings, well-functioning included insolvency systems can facilitate access to finance, Cost required to recover debt (% of debtor’s save more viable businesses and thereby improve estate) growth and sustainability in the economy overall. Measured as percentage of estate value What do the indicators cover? Court fees Doing Business studies the time, cost and outcome Fees of insolvency administrators of insolvency proceedings involving domestic entities. It does not measure insolvency Lawyers’ fees proceedings of individuals and financial Assessors’ and auctioneers’ fees institutions. The data are derived from survey Other related fees responses by local insolvency practitioners and verified through a study of laws and regulations as Outcome well as public information on bankruptcy systems. Whether business continues operating as a The ranking on the ease of resolving insolvency is going concern or business assets are sold based on the recovery rate, which is recorded as piecemeal cents on the dollar recouped by creditors through Recovery rate for creditors (cents on the reorganization, liquidation or debt enforcement dollar) (foreclosure) proceedings. The recovery rate is a Measures the cents on the dollar recovered function of time, cost and other factors, such as by creditors lending rate and the likelihood of the company continuing to operate. Present value of debt recovered To make the data comparable across economies, Official costs of the insolvency proceedings Doing Business uses several assumptions about the are deducted business and the case. It assumes that the Depreciation of furniture is taken into company: account  Is a domestically owned, limited liability Outcome for the business (survival or not) company operating a hotel. affects the maximum value that can be recovered  Operates in the economy’s largest business city.  Has 201 employees, 1 main secured  Has a higher value as a going concern—and creditor and 50 unsecured creditors. the efficient outcome is either reorganization or sale as a going concern, not piecemeal liquidation. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 90 RESOLVING INSOLVENCY Where does the economy stand today? Speed, low costs and continuation of viable businesses concern. The average recovery rate is 84.5 cents on the characterize the top-performing economies. How dollar. efficient are insolvency proceedings in Iceland? Globally, Iceland stands at 11 in the ranking of 189 According to data collected by Doing Business, economies on the ease of resolving insolvency (figure resolving insolvency takes 1.0 years on average and 11.1). The rankings for comparator economies and the costs 4% of the debtor’s estate, with the most likely regional average ranking provide other useful outcome being that the company will be sold as going benchmarks for assessing the efficiency of insolvency proceedings in Iceland. Figure 11.1 How Iceland and comparator economies rank on the ease of resolving insolvency Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 91 RESOLVING INSOLVENCY What are the changes over time? The benchmarks provided by the economies that over possible in improving the efficiency of insolvency time have had the best performance regionally or proceedings. And changes in regional averages can globally on the time or cost of insolvency proceedings show where Iceland is keeping up—and where it is or on the recovery rate (figure 11.2) help show what is falling behind. Figure 11.2 Has resolving insolvency become easier over time? Time (years) Cost (% of estate) Doing Business 2014 Iceland 92 RESOLVING INSOLVENCY Recovery rate (cents on the dollar) Note: DB2013 rankings shown are not last year’s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2013 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 4 economies (Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan) to the sample this year. “No practice” indicates that in each of the previous 5 years the economy had no cases involving a judicial reorganization, judicial liquidation or debt enforcement procedure (foreclosure). This means that creditors are unlikely to recover their money through a formal legal process (in or out of court). The recovery rate for “no practice” economies is 0. Regional averages on time and cost exclude economies with a “no practice” mark. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 93 RESOLVING INSOLVENCY A well-balanced bankruptcy system distinguishes change. Many recent reforms of bankruptcy laws have companies that are financially distressed but been aimed at helping more of the viable businesses economically viable from inefficient companies that survive. What insolvency reforms has Doing Business should be liquidated. But in some insolvency systems recorded in Iceland (table 11.1)? even viable businesses are liquidated. This is starting to Table 11.1 How has Iceland made resolving insolvency easier—or not? By Doing Business report year DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Note: For information on reforms in earlier years (back to DB2005), see the Doing Business reports for these years, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 94 EMPLOYING WORKERS Doing Business measures flexibility in the regulation of employing workers methodology proposed by the employment, specifically as it affects the hiring and consultative group are available on the Doing Business redundancy of workers and the rigidity of working website (http://www.doingbusiness.org). The data on hours. Over the period from 2007 to 2011 employing workers are based on a detailed survey of improvements were made to align the methodology employment regulations that is completed by local for the employing workers indicators with the letter lawyers and public officials. Employment laws and and spirit of the International Labour Organization regulations as well as secondary sources are reviewed (ILO) conventions. Only 4 of the 188 ILO conventions to ensure accuracy. cover areas measured by Doing Business: employee To make the data comparable across economies, termination, weekend work, holiday with pay and night several assumptions about the worker and the work. The Doing Business methodology is fully business are used. consistent with these 4 conventions. The ILO conventions covering areas related to the Employing The worker: Workers indicators do not include the ILO core labor  Earns a salary plus benefits equal to the standards—8 conventions covering the right to economy’s average wage during the entire collective bargaining, the elimination of forced labor, period of his employment. the abolition of child labor and equitable treatment in  Has a pay period that is the most common for workers in the economy. employment practices.  Is a lawful citizen who belongs to the same race and religion as the majority of the Between 2009 and 2011 the World Bank Group worked economy’s population. with a consultative group—including labor lawyers,  Resides in the economy’s largest business city. employer and employee representatives, and experts  Is not a member of a labor union, unless from the ILO, OECD, civil society and the private membership is mandatory. sector—to review the employing workers methodology and explore future areas of research. A i The business:  Is a limited liability company. full report with the conclusions of the consultative  Operates in the economy’s largest business group is available at city. http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology/employin  Is 100% domestically owned. g-workers.  Operates in the manufacturing sector.  Has 60 employees. This year Doing Business continued research collecting  Is subject to collective bargaining agreements additional data on regulations covering the in economies where such agreements cover probationary period for new employees. more than half the manufacturing sector and apply even to firms not party to them. Doing Business 2014 presents the data on the  Abides by every law and regulation but does not grant workers more benefits than employing workers indicators in an annex. The report mandated by law, regulation or (if applicable) does not present rankings of economies on the collective bargaining agreement. employing workers indicators nor include the topic in the aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business. Detailed data collected on labor regulations and the Doing Business 2014 Iceland 95 EMPLOYING WORKERS What do some of the data show? One of the employing workers indicators is the worker in his or her first job. Doing Business data show difficulty of hiring index. This measure assesses, among the trend in the minimum wage applied by Iceland other things, the minimum wage for a 19-year-old (figure 12.1). Figure 12.1 Has the minimum wage for a 19-year-old worker or an apprentice increased over time? Minimum wage (US$ per month) Note: A horizontal line along the x-axis of the figure indicates that the economy has no minimum wage. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 96 EMPLOYING WORKERS Employment laws are needed to protect workers from past 5 years did so in ways that increased labor market arbitrary or unfair treatment and to ensure efficient flexibility. What changes did Iceland adopt that contracting between employers and workers. Many affected the Doing Business indicators on employing economies that changed their labor regulations in the workers (table 12.1)? Table 12.1 What changes did Iceland make in employing workers in 2013? DB year Reform DB2009 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2010 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2011 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2012 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2013 No reform as measured by Doing Business. DB2014 No reform as measured by Doing Business. Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 97 EMPLOYING WORKERS What are the details? The data on employing workers reported here for public officials. Employment laws and regulations as Iceland are based on a detailed survey of employment well as secondary sources are reviewed to ensure regulations that is completed by local lawyers and accuracy. Rigidity of employment index The rigidity of employment index measures 3 areas of labor regulation: difficulty of hiring, rigidity of hours and difficulty of redundancy. Difficulty of hiring index The difficulty of hiring index measures whether fixed- worker. (The average value added per worker is the term contracts are prohibited for permanent tasks; the ratio of an economy’s gross national income per capita maximum cumulative duration of fixed-term contracts; to the working-age population as a percentage of the and the ratio of the minimum wage for a trainee or total population.) first-time employee to the average value added per Difficulty of hiring index Data Fixed-term contracts prohibited for permanent tasks? No Maximum length of a single fixed-term contract (months) 24 (AFTE) Maximum length of fixed-term contracts, including renewals (months) 24 Minimum wage for a 19-year old worker or an apprentice (US$/month) 1655.7 Ratio of minimum wage to value added per worker 0.34 Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 98 EMPLOYING WORKERS Rigidity of hours index The rigidity of hours index has 5 components: whether respond to a seasonal increase in production; and there are restrictions on night work; whether there are whether the average paid annual leave for a worker restrictions on weekly holiday work; whether the with 1 year of tenure, a worker with 5 years and a workweek can consist of 5.5 days or is more than 6 worker with 10 years is more than 26 working days or days; whether the workweek can extend to 50 hours or fewer than 15 working days. more (including overtime) for 2 months a year to Rigidity of hours index Data Standard workday in manufacturing (hours) 8 hours 50-hour workweek allowed for 2 months a year in case of a seasonal Yes increase in production? Maximum working days per week 6.0 Premium for night work (% of hourly pay) in case of continuous 80% operations Premium for work on weekly rest day (% of hourly pay) in case of 80% continuous operations Major restrictions on night work in case of continuous operations? No Major restrictions on weekly holiday in case of continuous operations? No Paid annual leave for a worker with 1 year of tenure (in working days) 24.0 Paid annual leave for a worker with 5 years of tenure (in working days) 24.0 Paid annual leave for a worker with 10 years of tenure (in working days) 24.0 Paid annual leave (average for workers with 1, 5 and 10 years of tenure, in 24.0 working days) Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 99 EMPLOYING WORKERS Difficulty of redundancy index The difficulty of redundancy index has 8 components: worker; whether the employer needs approval from a whether redundancy is disallowed as a basis for third party to terminate a group of 9 redundant terminating workers; whether the employer needs to workers; whether the law requires the employer to notify a third party (such as a government agency) to reassign or retrain a worker before making the worker terminate 1 redundant worker; whether the employer redundant; whether priority rules apply for needs to notify a third party to terminate a group of 9 redundancies; and whether priority rules apply for redundant workers; whether the employer needs reemployment. approval from a third party to terminate 1 redundant Difficulty of redundancy index Data Dismissal due to redundancy allowed by law? Yes Third-party notification if 1 worker is dismissed? No Third-party approval if 1 worker is dismissed? No Third-party notification if 9 workers are dismissed? No Third-party approval if 9 workers are dismissed? No Retraining or reassignment obligation before redundancy? No Priority rules for redundancies? No Priority rules for reemployment? No Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 100 EMPLOYING WORKERS Redundancy cost The redundancy cost indicator measures the cost of notice requirements and severance payments advance notice requirements, severance payments and applicable to a worker with 1 year of tenure, a worker penalties due when terminating a redundant worker, with 5 years and a worker with 10 years is used to expressed in weeks of salary. The average value of assign the score. Redundancy cost indicator Data Notice period for redundancy dismissal (for a worker with 1 year of tenure, in salary 4.3 weeks) Notice period for redundancy dismissal (for a worker with 5 years of tenure, in 13.0 salary weeks) Notice period for redundancy dismissal (for a worker with 10 years of tenure, in 13.0 salary weeks) Notice period for redundancy dismissal (average for workers with 1, 5 and 10 years 10.1 of tenure, in salary weeks) Severance pay for redundancy dismissal (for a worker with 1 year of tenure, in 0.0 salary weeks) Severance pay for redundancy dismissal (for a worker with 5 years of tenure, in 0.0 salary weeks) Severance pay for redundancy dismissal (for a worker with 10 years of tenure, in 0.0 salary weeks) Severance pay for redundancy dismissal (average for workers with 1, 5 and 10 years 0.0 of tenure, in salary weeks) Source: Doing Business database. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 101 DATA NOTES The indicators presented and analyzed in Doing rounds of verification, leading to revisions or Business measure business regulation and the expansions of the information collected. protection of property rights—and their effect on businesses, especially small and medium-size domestic firms. First, the indicators document the complexity of ECONOMY CHARACTERISTICS regulation, such as the number of procedures to start a business or to register and transfer commercial property. Second, they gauge the time and cost to Gross national income per capita achieve a regulatory goal or comply with regulation, such as the time and cost to enforce a contract, go Doing Business 2014 reports 2012 income per capita through bankruptcy or trade across borders. Third, as published in the World Bank’s World Development they measure the extent of legal protections of Indicators 2013. Income is calculated using the Atlas property, for example, the protections of investors method (current U.S. dollars). For cost indicators against looting by company directors or the range of expressed as a percentage of income per capita, assets that can be used as collateral according to 2012 gross national income (GNI) in U.S. dollars is secured transactions laws. Fourth, a set of indicators used as the denominator. GNI data were not documents the tax burden on businesses. Finally, a set available from the World Bank for Afghanistan, The of data covers different aspects of employment Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Brunei Darussalam, regulation. The 11 sets of indicators measured in Djibouti, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Doing Business were added over time, and the sample Myanmar, New Zealand, Oman, San Marino, the of economies expanded. Syrian Arab Republic, West Bank and Gaza, and the Republic of Yemen. In these cases GDP or GNP per The data for all sets of indicators in Doing Business 2 capita data and growth rates from other sources, 2014 are for June 2013. such as the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook database and the Economist Intelligence Unit, were used. Methodology Region and income group The Doing Business data are collected in a standardized way. To start, the Doing Business team, Doing Business uses the World Bank regional and with academic advisers, designs a questionnaire. The income group classifications, available at questionnaire uses a simple business case to ensure http://data.worldbank.org/about/country- classifications. The World Bank does not assign comparability across economies and over time—with regional classifications to high-income economies. assumptions about the legal form of the business, its For the purpose of the Doing Business report, high- size, its location and the nature of its operations. income OECD economies are assigned the “regional” Questionnaires are administered to more than 10,200 classification OECD high income. Figures and tables local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, presenting regional averages include economies accountants, freight forwarders, government officials from all income groups (low, lower middle, upper and other professionals routinely administering or middle and high income). advising on legal and regulatory requirements (table Population 21.2). These experts have several rounds of interaction with the Doing Business team, involving conference Doing Business 2014 reports midyear 2012 calls, written correspondence and visits by the team. population statistics as published in World For Doing Business 2014 team members visited 33 Development Indicators 2013. economies to verify data and recruit respondents. The data from questionnaires are subjected to numerous The Doing Business methodology offers several advantages. It is transparent, using factual information about what laws and regulations say and allowing 2 The data for paying taxes refer to January – December 2012. multiple interactions with local respondents to clarify Doing Business 2014 Iceland 102 potential misinterpretations of questions. Having entrepreneurs reported in the World Bank Enterprise representative samples of respondents is not an issue; Surveys or other perception surveys. Doing Business is not a statistical survey, and the texts This year Doing Business completed subnational of the relevant laws and regulations are collected and studies in Colombia, Italy and the city of Hargeisa answers checked for accuracy. The methodology is (Somaliland) and is currently updating indicators in inexpensive and easily replicable, so data can be Egypt, Mexico and Nigeria. Doing Business also collected in a large sample of economies. Because published regional studies for the g7+ and the East standard assumptions are used in the data collection, African Community. The g7+ group is a country- comparisons and benchmarks are valid across owned and country-led global mechanism established economies. Finally, the data not only highlight the in April 2010 to monitor, report and draw attention to extent of specific regulatory obstacles to business but the unique challenges faced by fragile states. The also identify their source and point to what might be member countries included in the report are reformed. Information on the methodology for each Afghanistan, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Doing Business topic can be found on the Doing Chad, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Business website at Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology. Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Timor-Leste and Togo. Limits to what is measured The subnational studies point to differences in business regulation and its implementation —as well as The Doing Business methodology has 5 limitations that in the pace of regulatory reform—across cities in the should be considered when interpreting the data. First, same economy. For several economies subnational the collected data refer to businesses in the economy’s studies are now periodically updated to measure largest business city (which in some economies differs change over time or to expand geographic coverage from the capital) and may not be representative of to additional cities. This year that is the case for all the regulation in other parts of the economy. To address subnational studies published. this limitation, subnational Doing Business indicators were created (box 21.1). Second, the data often focus on a specific business form—generally a limited liability company (or its legal equivalent) of a specified Changes in what is measured size—and may not be representative of the regulation The methodology for 2 indicator sets—trading across on other businesses, for example, sole proprietorships. borders and paying taxes—was updated this year. For Third, transactions described in a standardized case trading across borders, documents that are required scenario refer to a specific set of issues and may not purely for purposes of preferential treatment are no represent the full set of issues a business encounters. longer included in the list of documents (for example, Fourth, the measures of time involve an element of a certificate of origin if the use is only to qualify for a judgment by the expert respondents. When sources preferential tariff rate under trade agreements). For indicate different estimates, the time indicators paying taxes, the value of fuel taxes is no longer reported in Doing Business represent the median included in the total tax rate because of the difficulty values of several responses given under the of computing these taxes in a consistent way across all assumptions of the standardized case. economies covered. The fuel tax amounts are in most cases very small, and measuring these amounts is Finally, the methodology assumes that a business has often complicated because they depend on fuel full information on what is required and does not consumption. Fuel taxes continue to be counted in the waste time when completing procedures. In practice, number of payments. completing a procedure may take longer if the business lacks information or is unable to follow up In a change involving several indicator sets, the rule promptly. Alternatively, the business may choose to establishing that each procedure must take at least 1 disregard some burdensome procedures. For both day was removed for procedures that can be fully reasons the time delays reported in Doing Business completed online in just a few hours. This change 2014 would differ from the recollection of affects the time indicator for starting a business, Doing Business 2014 Iceland 103 dealing with construction permits and registering with one another, while the distance to frontier property. For procedures that can be fully completed measure benchmarks economies to the frontier in 3 online, the duration is now set at half a day rather than regulatory practice, measuring the absolute distance to a full day. the best performance on each indicator. Both measures can be used for comparisons over time. The threshold for the total tax rate introduced in 2011 When compared across years, the distance to frontier for the purpose of calculating the ranking on the ease measure shows how much the regulatory environment of paying taxes was updated. All economies with a for local entrepreneurs in each economy has changed total tax rate below the threshold (which is calculated over time in absolute terms, while the ease of doing and adjusted on a yearly basis) receive the same business ranking can show only relative change. ranking on the total tax rate indicator. The threshold is not based on any economic theory of an “optimal tax Ease of doing business rate” that minimizes distortions or maximizes efficiency The ease of doing business index ranks economies in the tax system of an economy overall. Instead, it is from 1 to 189. For each economy the ranking is mainly empirical in nature, set at the lower end of the calculated as the simple average of the percentile distribution of tax rates levied on medium-size rankings on each of the 10 topics included in the index enterprises in the manufacturing sector as observed in Doing Business 2014: starting a business, dealing through the paying taxes indicators. This reduces the with construction permits, getting electricity, bias in the indicators toward economies that do not registering property, getting credit, protecting need to levy significant taxes on companies like the investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, Doing Business standardized case study company enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency. The because they raise public revenue in other ways—for employing workers indicators are not included in this example, through taxes on foreign companies, through year’s aggregate ease of doing business ranking. taxes on sectors other than manufacturing or from natural resources (all of which are outside the scope of Construction of the ease of doing business index the methodology). This year the threshold is 25,5%. Here is one example of how the ease of doing business index is constructed. In Denmark it takes 4 procedures, 5.5 days and 0.2% of annual income per capita in fees Data challenges and revisions to open a business. The minimum capital requirement Most laws and regulations underlying the Doing is 24% of annual income per capita. On these 4 Business data are available on the Doing Business indicators Denmark ranks in the 12th, 11th, 1st and website at http://www.doingbusiness.org. All the 79th percentiles. So on average Denmark ranks in the sample questionnaires and the details underlying the 25th percentile on the ease of starting a business. It indicators are also published on the website. Questions ranks in the 21st percentile on getting credit, 19th on the methodology and challenges to data can be percentile on paying taxes, 27th percentile on submitted through the website’s “Ask a Question” enforcing contracts, 5th percentile on resolving function at http://www.doingbusiness.org. insolvency and so on. Higher rankings indicate simpler regulation and stronger protection of property rights. Ease of doing business and distance to The simple average of Denmark’s percentile rankings frontier on all topics is 17th. When all economies are ordered Doing Business 2014 presents results for 2 aggregate by their average percentile rankings, Denmark stands measures: the aggregate ranking on the ease of doing at 5 in the aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business and the distance to frontier measure. The business. ease of doing business ranking compares economies More complex aggregation methods—such as 3 For getting electricity the rule that each procedure must take a principal components and unobserved components— minimum of 1 day still applies because in practice there are no yield a ranking nearly identical to the simple average cases in which procedures can be fully completed online in less than a day. For example, even though in some cases it is possible to apply for an electricity connection online, additional requirements mean that the process cannot be completed in less than 1 day. Doing Business 2014 Iceland 104 4 used by Doing Business. Thus, Doing Business uses 58 on enforcing contracts, 116 on dealing with the simplest method: weighting all topics equally and, construction permits and 145 on getting electricity. within each topic, giving equal weight to each of the Variation in performance across the indicator sets is topic components. not at all unusual. It reflects differences in the degree If an economy has no laws or regulations covering a of priority that government authorities give to specific area—for example, insolvency—it receives a particular areas of business regulation reform and the “no practice” mark. Similarly, an economy receives a ability of different government agencies to deliver “no practice” or “not possible” mark if regulation exists tangible results in their area of responsibility. but is never used in practice or if a competing Distance to frontier measure regulation prohibits such practice. Either way, a “no practice” mark puts the economy at the bottom of the A drawback of the ease of doing business ranking is ranking on the relevant indicator. that it can measure the regulatory performance of economies only relative to the performance of others. The ease of doing business index is limited in scope. It It does not provide information on how the absolute does not account for an economy’s proximity to large quality of the regulatory environment is improving markets, the quality of its infrastructure services (other over time. Nor does it provide information on how than services related to trading across borders and large the gaps are between economies at a single getting electricity), the strength of its financial system, point in time. the security of property from theft and looting, macroeconomic conditions or the strength of The distance to frontier measure is designed to underlying institutions. address both shortcomings, complementing the ease of doing business ranking. This measure illustrates the Variability of economies’ rankings across topics distance of an economy to the “frontier,” and the Each indicator set measures a different aspect of the change in the measure over time shows the extent to business regulatory environment. The rankings of an which the economy has closed this gap. The frontier is economy can vary, sometimes significantly, across a score derived from the most efficient practice or indicator sets. The average correlation coefficient highest score achieved on each of the component between the 10 indicator sets included in the indicators in 10 Doing Business indicator sets aggregate ranking is 0.38, and the coefficients (excluding the employing workers indicators) by any between any 2 sets of indicators range from 0.18 economy. In starting a business, for example, Canada (between getting electricity and getting credit) to 0.58 and New Zealand have achieved the highest (between trading across borders and resolving performance on the number of procedures required (1) insolvency and between trading across borders and and on the time (0.5 days), Denmark and Slovenia on getting electricity). These correlations suggest that the cost (0% of income per capita) and Chile, Zambia economies rarely score universally well or universally and 99 other economies on the paid-in minimum badly on the indicators. capital requirement (0% of income per capita) (table 22.2). Consider the example of Canada. It stands at 19 in the aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business. Its Calculating the distance to frontier for each economy ranking is 2 on starting a business, 4 on protecting involves 2 main steps. First, individual indicator scores investors, and 8 on paying taxes. But its ranking is only are normalized to a common unit: except for the total tax rate, each of the 31 component indicators y is rescaled to (max − y)/(max − min), with the minimum 4 See Simeon Djankov, Darshini Manraj, Caralee McLiesh and Rita Ramalho, “Doing Business Indicators: Why Aggregate, and How to value (min) representing the frontier—the highest Do It” (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005). Principal components performance on that indicator across all economies and unobserved components methods yield a ranking nearly since 2003 or the first year the indicator was collected. 5 identical to that from the simple average method because both these methods assign roughly equal weights to the topics, since the For the total tax rate, consistent with the calculation of pairwise correlations among indicators do not differ much. An alternative to the simple average method is to give different weights to the topics, depending on which are considered of more or less 5 Even though scores for the distance to frontier are calculated from importance in the context of a specific economy. 2005, data from as early as 2003 are used to define the frontier Doing Business 2014 Iceland 105 the rankings, the frontier is defined as the total tax rate Economies that improved the most across 3 or at the 15th percentile of the overall distribution of more Doing Business topics in 2012/13 total tax rates for all years. Second, for each economy Doing Business 2014 uses a simple method to calculate the scores obtained for individual indicators are which economies improved the most in the ease of aggregated through simple averaging into one doing business. First, it selects the economies that in distance to frontier score, first for each topic and then 2012/13 implemented regulatory reforms making it across all topics. An economy’s distance to frontier is easier to do business in 3 or more of the 10 topics indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents included in this year’s ease of doing business ranking. 6 the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Twenty-nine economies meet this criterion: Azerbaijan, The maximum (max) and minimum (min) observed Belarus, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Djibouti, values are computed for all economies included in the Gabon, Guatemala, Guinea, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, the Doing Business sample since 2003 and for all years former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malaysia, (from 2003 to 2013). To mitigate the effects of extreme Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, outliers in the distributions of the rescaled data (very Panama, the Philippines, the Republic of Congo, few economies need 694 days to complete the Romania, the Russian Federation, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, procedures to start a business, but many need 9 days), Ukraine, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates. th the maximum (max) is defined as the 95 percentile of Second, Doing Business sorts these economies on the the pooled data for all economies and all years for increase in their distance to frontier measure from the each indicator. The exceptions are the getting credit, previous year using comparable data. protecting investors and resolving insolvency Selecting the economies that implemented regulatory indicators, whose construction precludes outliers. In reforms in at least 3 topics and improved the most in addition, the cost to export and cost to import for each the distance to frontier measure is intended to year are divided by the GDP deflator, so as to take the highlight economies with ongoing, broadbased reform general price level into account when benchmarking programs. The criterion for identifying the top these absolute-cost indicators across economies with improvers was changed from last year. The different inflation trends. The base year for the deflator improvement in ease of doing business ranking is no is 2013 for all economies. longer used. The improvement in the distance to The difference between an economy’s distance to frontier measure is used instead because under this frontier score in any previous year and its score in measure economies are sorted according to their abs- 2013 illustrates the extent to which the economy has olute improvement instead of relative improvement. closed the gap to the frontier over time. And in any given year the score measures how far an economy is from the highest performance at that time. Take Colombia, which has a score of 70.5 on the distance to frontier measure for 2014. This score indicates that the economy is 29.5 percentage points away from the frontier constructed from the best performances across all economies and all years. Colombia was further from the frontier in 2009, with a score of 66.2. The difference between the scores shows an improvement over time. The distance to frontier measure can also be used for comparisons across economies in the same year, complementing the ease of doing business ranking. For example, Colombia stands at 63 this year in the ease of doing business ranking, while Peru, which is 6 Doing Business reforms making it more difficult to do business are 29.3 percentage points from the frontier, stands at 42. subtracted from the total number of those making it easier to do business. 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