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Practical Guides7 min read6 September 2026

Setting Up a Company in Paraguay 2026: The EAS Step by Step

The EAS is Paraguay's simplified stock company: no minimum capital, formed online through SUACE. What foreigners need and how long it takes.

Harley Bieder
By Harley Bieder, Latin America specialist, VidaLibrePlan

If you want to start a business in Paraguay, there is a legal form deliberately designed to be simple: the Empresa por Acciones Simplificadas, or EAS for short. There is no mandatory notary appointment and no minimum capital, formation runs entirely online through a government portal, and you come out with the company, the tax number and the employer registration in one go. For foreigners, though, there is one hurdle you need to know about before you start. This guide is based on the law itself and on the information published by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

What the EAS is

The EAS was created by Law 6480, promulgated on 8 January 2020 and published on 13 January 2020. Under Article 1 it can be formed by one or more natural or legal persons who make contributions in order to carry on a lawful business activity in an organised way. An EAS is always a commercial company, whatever it does. For tax purposes, however, it is treated according to the nature of its activities, not its legal form.

Two features make it attractive:

  • Limited liability. From registration, the EAS is a separate legal person and is liable only with its own assets. Under Article 4, shareholders are not liable for the company's employment, tax or other obligations, only up to the amount of the contributions they have committed. Until registration, however, they are jointly, severally and personally liable without limit.
  • The one-person company. You can form an EAS on your own, as an *EAS Unipersonal*. Such a one-person EAS may not, however, form another one-person EAS or hold a stake in one.
  • The hurdle for foreigners: the legal representative

    Formation runs exclusively online through the Sistema Unificado de Apertura y Cierre de Empresas (SUACE) of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIC). Access is via the electronic identity of the legal representative, and according to the MIC's answers on the EAS, that electronic identity is only available with a Paraguayan cédula.

    The MIC spells out what follows from this:

  • The legal representative must have Paraguayan nationality or a Paraguayan cédula, without exception.
  • Foreign shareholders without permanent residency in Paraguay may not be members of the management body, so neither president nor director nor legal representative.
  • They may, however, be shareholders and form the EAS, provided they appoint a legal representative who is Paraguayan or holds permanent residency.
  • The appointment is made by power of attorney. If it is granted abroad, it needs an apostille or legalisation and, if it is not in Spanish, a translation into Spanish. If it is granted in Paraguay, it must be entered in the register of powers of attorney.
  • In practice: as long as you do not have a cédula, you need a trusted person on the ground to represent the company externally. This is not a formality but a real position of power, because under Article 27 the legal representative may, unless the articles provide otherwise, enter into any transaction that falls within the company's purpose. Choose this person carefully, limit their powers in the articles and in the power of attorney, and document everything. How to find a reliable lawyer or gestor is covered in finding a good lawyer or gestor in Latin America.

    Step 1: Plan the capital

    The EAS has no minimum capital, as the MIC makes clear, expressly including when all shareholders are foreigners. The capital should, however, be enough to cover the company's running costs. Under Article 10 of the law, subscribed capital must be paid in within two years at the latest.

    Contributions can be made in cash or in kind: real estate, vehicles, goods, machinery, livestock. According to the MIC, the evidence required is as follows:

  • Cash below the threshold of 3,478,857,600 guaraníes (indexed to the minimum wage): no evidence required.
  • Cash above the threshold: at least 20% of the subscribed cash capital must be paid into an MIC account at the state-owned Banco Nacional de Fomento on formation.
  • Registered assets such as real estate or cars: the public deed in the name of the contributing shareholder, showing exactly the value declared as the contribution. Transfer to the EAS must be completed within 60 working days of registration.
  • Unregistered assets such as goods or machinery: an invoice in the shareholder's name or an inventory signed by the shareholders and a Paraguayan accountant.
  • The name. For a one-person EAS, the suffix Unipersonal must be included in the name, and it may not simply bear the name of its sole shareholder. According to the MIC, the company name is only protected against other EAS; an SRL or SA with the same name can still exist. If you want to protect a trade mark or trade name, register it separately with DINAPI, Paraguay's intellectual property office.

    The bank account. Article 35 obliges banks to provide mechanisms that allow an EAS to open an account within a period set by regulation, and to review applications promptly. The review itself is still up to the bank, so expect questions about the source of funds and beneficial owners.

    Step 2: Choose the articles

    Under Article 5, an EAS can be created by contract or unilateral act, by public deed or in private written form with authenticated signatures. A notarial deed is only mandatory if assets are contributed whose transfer requires one. The MIC offers three routes:

    1. The standard articles (estatuto proforma). The system generates them automatically from the details you enter in the form. They may not be edited, and are signed digitally or by hand and uploaded as a scan.

    2. Your own articles as a private document with notarially authenticated signatures.

    3. A notarial deed (escritura pública).

    Every set of articles must contain at least: the name, identity document and address of the shareholders, the company name with the suffix "EAS", the registered office, the corporate purpose, the duration, the capital with share classes and payment terms, the allocation of profits and losses, and the organisation of management and the shareholders' meeting. Under Article 26 a management body is not mandatory. Without one, the legal representative takes on all its functions. A one-person EAS must, under the requirements of the competent registry, also appoint a deputy.

    Step 3: File online and know the deadlines

    The documents go through SUACE to the competent office in the Ministry of Finance, the Dirección General de Personas y Estructuras Jurídicas y de Beneficiarios Finales. According to the MIC, registration without objections takes:

  • 72 working hours with the standard articles,
  • 8 working days with your own articles or a notarial deed.
  • If there are objections, you have 3 working days to remedy them. After that the file is deleted and you start again. Note that all notifications go to the company email address you enter in the form. The MIC expressly asks that you do not enter the address of a third party such as a gestor or accountant there.

    Step 4: What you get at the end

    The portal connects the authorities involved. According to the MIC, on formation you receive:

  • the constancia de constitución, the confirmation of incorporation,
  • the RUC, the tax number from the tax administration,
  • registration as an employer with the social security institute IPS,
  • registration with the Ministry of Labour, MTESS,
  • the confirmations concerning the beneficial owners and the legal person.
  • For the RUC, the legal representative must appear in person at the tax administration and sign forms. Registration with the MTESS is mandatory, within 60 days of starting business.

    Step 5: Ongoing obligations

    Under Article 31, every EAS keeps a minute book of the shareholders' meeting, a share register, a minute book of the management body (if there is one), a journal and an inventory book. According to the MIC, all books must be rubricated, that is, officially certified. The shares are registered shares. The legal representative submits the annual accounts to the shareholders for approval; in a one-person EAS the sole shareholder approves them and records this in the minute book.

    Tax: the EAS pays the corporate income tax IRE. According to the MIC, referring to Article 21 of Law 6380, the rate is 10%. Instead of the general regime, the EAS can opt for the simplified IRE SIMPLE if its income in the previous year did not exceed 2,000,000,000 guaraníes and it neither imports nor exports. On top of that come value added tax, IVA, and any taxes specific to the activity. Profit distributions follow the same rules as for any other company.

    What the EAS may not do: lending and other financial business regulated by the central bank, higher education and non-profit activity. The MIC assigns some liberal professions, such as practising as a lawyer or accountant, to natural persons. And its shares may not be traded on the stock exchange.

    The EAS and your residency

    Law 6480 governs the company, not your stay. Forming an EAS alone does not give you residency. The MIC mentions one link in its answers: the requirement of at least USD 70,000 in capital and five jobs in the first two years does not apply to the EAS as such but to the constancia del inversionista, which according to the MIC opens faster routes to residency and a cédula. The investor routes available today, including the Investor Pass under Resolución 0283/2026, are set out in the article on the Paraguay Investor Pass. The standard route to residency is described in Paraguay residency step by step.

    The tax question at home

    A company in Paraguay is not automatically taxable only in Paraguay. If you run the EAS from your desk back home, the question is whether your home country treats it as managed there and therefore as taxable there. How your country answers that, and whether a treaty with Paraguay helps, is worth settling before the company generates revenue:

    When a foreign company makes sense at all is examined in setting up a company in Latin America.

    The EAS is an excellent tool for anyone who is genuinely building something in Paraguay: a local business, a service provider with real clients, a company with employees. If, on the other hand, you only want a shell for income from abroad, the EAS mainly brings you obligations: books, tax returns, a legal representative with a cédula and a management that should sit where the company is located. For an overview of the country, from residency to cost of living, see the Paraguay country page.

    Carpe Diem. Life is short and fleeting. One shot. Make it count.