Business liquidation and bankruptcy in Uzbekistan

Voluntary liquidation of a company in Uzbekistan takes no more than six months and goes through a public services center without any court involvement. If the assets are not enough to settle with the creditors, the liquidator must file an insolvency application with the economic court: the case is then conducted under the Law "On insolvency", and liquidation proceedings run for up to 12 months.

In brief:

• The overall term of a voluntary company liquidation is no more than 6 months from the day the registering authority is notified; creditors' claims are accepted for at least 2 months from the day of publication
• The tax audit on liquidation lasts up to 30 calendar days and covers no more than 3 years; companies with a low tax risk level and income of up to 10 billion soums over 3 years are not audited
• A company shows signs of insolvency once its obligations have gone unperformed for 3 months; for individuals and individual entrepreneurs a debt threshold of 88.000.000 soums (200 BRV, the base calculation unit) is added
• The state fee for an application to open insolvency proceedings is 1.320.000 soums (3 BRV); the case is heard within 2 months
• Liquidation proceedings last no more than 12 months, with an extension of up to 3 months
• A dormant company is struck off the register by decision of the registering authority after one year in dormant status

Updated: 02 September 2026

How liquidation differs from bankruptcy

Liquidation is the termination of a company by decision of its participants, when the assets cover every debt; bankruptcy is a court procedure for a debtor that cannot settle with its creditors. Liquidation is run by a liquidator appointed by the participants and goes through a public services center; bankruptcy is run by the economic court and a court-appointed administrator.

Both procedures end the same way: the company is deemed to have ceased to exist once the entry is made in the unified state register, and its obligations terminate with no succession. The exception is liquidation of a dormant company by decision of the registering authority, where no liquidator is appointed at all.

LLC liquidation in Uzbekistan: step by step

The decision to liquidate and to appoint a liquidator is taken by the general meeting of participants on the proposal of the supervisory board, the director or a participant; in a company with a single participant, by that participant. The liquidator may be a founder or a person appointed by the founders (a liquidation commission). From the moment of appointment, all powers to manage the company pass to the liquidator, who acts on its behalf in court and signs documents without a power of attorney. The procedure is set out in Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 704 of 21.08.2019.

What the liquidator does:

• States in the decision the details of the company and of the liquidator (passport, telephone, email), the place and period for accepting claims, the reason for the liquidation and its planned term
• No later than the next working day, sends a copy of the decision to the public services center (in person or online) and to the servicing bank; secondary and deposit accounts are closed and the balances transferred to the main account
• Within 3 working days accepts the company's documents, seal (if any) and property against an inventory; if the company holds goods subject to mandatory labelling, notifies the tax authority of the stock within the same period
• Carries out an inventory of assets and liabilities, prepares tax computations for every tax from the start of the year to the date of the notice, identifies the creditors and notifies them in writing with confirmation of receipt
• Warns the employees of dismissal at least 2 months in advance and enters the release data into the Unified National Labour System
• Once the claim period has expired, draws up the interim liquidation balance sheet taking the results of the tax audit into account, has it approved by the participants and, within 5 working days, informs each creditor whether its claim has been recognised
• Settles with the creditors in the order of priority; if there is not enough money, sells the property at open auction through a valuer, with any property left unsold for 2 months offered to the creditors at its appraised value
• Pays the taxes, fees and financial sanctions, including those assessed by the audit, distributes the remaining property among the participants and draws up the liquidation balance sheet
• Files the liquidation balance sheet with the tax authority (1 working day), obtains the conclusion confirming the absence of debt and a certificate from the Bureau of Compulsory Enforcement confirming that no enforcement documents are outstanding
• Closes the main account (the bank does this within 1 working day) and, within 3 working days, deposits the documents with a state or non-state archive

Within 2 working days the registering authority checks through the system that every stage has been completed and makes the entry on liquidation; after that it notifies the tax authority, the statistics bodies and the banks itself. There is no need to publish an announcement in a newspaper: the registering authority posts it on its own website on the day it receives the decision, stating the period for creditors' claims, which cannot be shorter than 2 months.

This article covers only the exit from a business. If the company keeps operating and it is one participant who leaves, read the article on the limited liability company: it explains how a share is sold or passes on and what the departing participant receives. How to open a new company after closing the old one is shown in the article on business registration.

What changes after the liquidation notice

From the day the registering authority is notified, the company's financial and business activity is suspended: the constitutive documents may not be amended, property may be disposed of only as part of the liquidation, and every obligation, including deferred payments, is treated as having fallen due. At the same time, land tax, property tax, tax for the use of water resources and late-payment interest on all taxes stop accruing. The bank debits the accounts only on the liquidator's instruction, and the No. 2 card index of unpaid payment documents is suspended.

These reliefs apply for as long as the liquidation stays within the 6 months. If the documents are not filed in full by that deadline, the liquidation is terminated, the closed accounts are reinstated, and all suspended payments are collected in full for the entire period. The participants may change their minds and restore the company's activity at any stage, but a tax audit that has already started is carried through to the end.

Liquidation of a company with a foreign founder

After terminating its activity, a foreign investor is entitled to freely repatriate the assets received, in cash or in kind, provided the obligations to the budget and to the creditors have been performed. The remaining property is distributed among the participants in proportion to their shares, and the investor receives its share at market value. Liquidation payments in the part exceeding the participant's contribution to the charter fund are treated as dividends: from a non-resident, the company as tax agent withholds tax at 10%, unless a double tax treaty provides for a lower rate.

Tax audit and settlement with the budget on liquidation

The tax authority starts the audit within 3 working days after the notice is received through the system; it lasts no more than 30 calendar days and covers the period since the last audit, but no more than 3 years preceding the year of the audit. If the audit is not completed on time, the tax debt is determined from the liquidator's computations.

No audit is carried out where the company has not operated since registration and has no tax debt, and also where its aggregate income over the last 3 years did not exceed 10 billion soums, it has no debts to the budget or to creditors, it filed its reports regularly and its tax risk level is low. In that case the conclusion confirming the absence of debt is generated automatically. A company with a medium risk level and the same turnover can, since 10 November 2025, avoid the audit if it is liquidated on the strength of a conclusion from a tax consultant or an audit organisation.

The tax liability is discharged by the liquidator out of the company's money, including the proceeds of the sale of property; when property and remaining stock are sold, the taxes are computed at the actual selling prices. If the money is not enough, the remaining debt may be paid off by the participants within the limits set by law, otherwise it is written off as uncollectible. Overpaid tax is set off against other taxes, and where there is no debt it is refunded within 15 days of the application. The last tax period is the time from the start of the year to the day the liquidation is completed.

Liquidation of a dormant company

A company is treated as not carrying out financial and business activity if it has not opened a bank account within 3 months of registration, or has opened one but for 6 months no money from its activity has come in, no electronic invoices have been issued, no online cash register, virtual cash desk or marketplace payment system has been used, and no foreign trade operations have been carried out. The banks report such accounts to the tax authority, which within 3 working days moves the company to "not carrying out activity" status and stops accepting its tax reporting.

The tax authority then checks whether the company has any property and any debts and invites the founders to liquidate it voluntarily. If liquidation is not started within 10 working days, the founders refuse or cannot be found, and there are no debts and no property, the company is moved to dormant status: within 1 working day the bank closes its accounts and transfers the balances to a dormant deposit account. After one year in that status the registering authority strikes the company off the register and cancels its registration certificate; no liquidator is appointed in this case. Account balances and overpaid taxes of a struck-off company go to the local budget.

Activity can be restored if the founders, their representatives or their heirs apply to the registering authority within the year; the company is not treated as newly created. If, however, a dormant company turns out to have debts and not enough property to cover them, it is liquidated through insolvency proceedings, without the supervision and rehabilitation stages.

How an individual entrepreneur closes down

An individual entrepreneur who does not pay taxes under the rules for legal entities terminates activity on application to a public services center. Within 1 working day the registering authority asks the tax authority to confirm that there is no debt, the tax authority replies within 2 working days, the bank sends a certificate that the main account has been closed, and within a further 1 working day the entry on termination of activity is made in the register. An individual entrepreneur who pays taxes under the rules for legal entities is closed under the rules for company liquidation.

Until the registration is terminated, an individual entrepreneur must pay social tax of at least 440.000 soums a month regardless of whether any activity was carried on, so simply stopping work is not enough. Activity may be suspended for up to one year; if it is not resumed within the year and there is no tax debt, then since 11 May 2026 the registering authority strikes the entrepreneur off the register on notification from the tax authority, and the account balances go to the local budget. Termination of the status does not release the person from obligations to creditors connected with the business: the former entrepreneur answers for them with all their property.

Bankruptcy procedure in Uzbekistan: signs and the application

Insolvency cases are heard by the economic court at the place of registration of the company or the place of residence of the individual, under the Law "On insolvency" of 12.04.2022 (ZRU-763). The Law distinguishes two signs: temporary insolvency — obligations to creditors or to the budget unperformed for 3 months from the due date — and permanent insolvency, where the obligations exceed the value of the assets both on the date the application is filed and at the start of the year. Temporary insolvency is a ground for restoration procedures, permanent insolvency for declaring the debtor bankrupt and opening liquidation proceedings. No minimum debt amount is set for companies.

An application may be filed by the debtor itself and by a creditor, and for debts to the budget by the tax authority once it has taken collection measures. A creditor supports its claim with a court judgment, an acknowledgement of the debt by the debtor, or a notary's writ of execution. The director of the company, the liquidation commission or the liquidator must apply to the court within one month if settling with one creditor makes it impossible to settle with the rest, if enforcement against the property would halt the business, or if the liquidation has shown that the assets will not cover all creditors. For failing to file, the director and the liquidator bear subsidiary liability for the obligations that arose after that deadline.

The debtor's application is accompanied by the constitutive documents, a list of creditors and debtors with a breakdown of the debt, the balance sheet as at the last reporting date and the participants' decision to apply to the court. The state fee is 1.320.000 soums (3 BRV); tax authorities and court-appointed administrators file without paying a fee. The judge decides whether to accept the application within 5 days, and the case itself is heard within no more than 2 months, with a possible one-month extension. From the day the application is accepted, creditors may not pursue their debts individually: their interests are represented by the creditors' meeting, and the courts do not accept new recovery claims against the debtor.

Bankruptcy procedures and their terms

For a company the Law provides four procedures: supervision, judicial rehabilitation, external administration and liquidation proceedings; at any stage the debtor and the creditors may conclude an amicable settlement.

From the moment the debtor is declared bankrupt, all obligations are treated as having fallen due, late-payment interest and other interest stop accruing, enforcement proceedings are closed, the director's powers end and management passes to the liquidation administrator. Within 10 days the administrator arranges publication of the bankruptcy, and creditors are given at least a month to submit their claims. Information about court acts is published in the mass media, and from 1 December 2026 the official source becomes the Unified electronic platform for conducting insolvency cases, with an open register of debtors.

Order of priority of creditors' claims

In bankruptcy, court costs, the administrator's remuneration, utility payments and obligations that arose after the case was opened are covered out of turn. Then, in the first place, come wages, maintenance payments and remuneration under copyright contracts; in the second place, taxes, bank loans, the uncovered part of secured creditors' claims and all unsecured creditors' claims; in the third place, dividends; in the fourth place, the remaining claims. Each rank is paid only after the previous one has been settled in full, and within a rank pro rata. Claims for which the assets were not enough are deemed discharged. In a voluntary liquidation there are three ranks: the employees, the budget and the targeted funds, and then the other creditors; secured claims are settled out of the proceeds of the sale of the pledged asset.

The court-appointed administrator

A court-appointed administrator must be a person with higher education, at least 2 years of experience and a certificate from the authorised body. The remuneration is set by the creditors' meeting, approved by the court and paid out of the debtor's property; if the register of claims is settled in full, the administrator is entitled to a bonus of up to 5% of the amount of the claims. Since 7 May 2026 the field has been the responsibility of the Insolvency Agency under the Ministry of Justice, and administrators are assigned to cases automatically and at random by an electronic system.

Liability of founders and the director

As a general rule the participants of an LLC are not liable for the company's debts, while participants who have not paid up their contribution in full are jointly and severally liable to the extent of the unpaid part. The exception is subsidiary liability: if the insolvency was caused by the unlawful acts of the director, a participant or another person entitled to give binding instructions, then where the assets are insufficient the court may impose on that person the company's debts in the amount of the difference between the register of claims and the liquidation estate. Unless the contrary is proved, fault is presumed where substantial harm was caused to creditors by transactions in that person's favour, or where signs of deliberate insolvency have been established. The application is filed within 3 years of the day the ground became known, but no later than 3 years after the liquidation proceedings end; former employees may apply as well. A founder found at fault may not act as director or founder of other companies until the debts have been repaid.

The court-appointed administrator may challenge transactions concluded within 3 years before the case was opened: sales at an undervalue, gifts, and transactions giving preference to one creditor. A payout of a share to a departing participant made within 36 months before the application is returned to the debtor, and the participant becomes a fourth-rank creditor. The Law also treats deliberate self-liquidation to escape debts as an unlawful act.

Deliberate insolvency causing loss to creditors is punishable by a fine of 22.000.000 to 66.000.000 soums (Art. 179-5 of the Code of Administrative Liability). Where the loss is large, criminal liability follows for false insolvency, concealment of insolvency and deliberate insolvency: a fine of 66.000.000 to 110.000.000 soums, or restriction or deprivation of liberty for up to 3 years (Art. 180, 181, 181-1 of the Criminal Code). A person who commits such an offence for the first time is released from liability if the loss is made good within 30 days of the day it was discovered.

Personal bankruptcy

An individual may be declared insolvent if they fail to perform monetary obligations or to pay taxes for 3 months and the claims against them amount to at least 88.000.000 soums (200 BRV). Where the total obligations reach that threshold and it is impossible to settle with all creditors, the individual must file an application themselves within 30 days. A creditor or the tax authority applies to the court where there is a court judgment, a notarised transaction or a debt acknowledged by the debtor. The applicant pays 9.520.000 soums (seven times the minimum wage) into the court's deposit account in advance, to cover the financial administrator's remuneration; the court may defer this payment for the debtor.

Two procedures apply to an individual: debt restructuring, under which a moratorium is introduced and a repayment plan approved, and being declared bankrupt with a sale of property for up to 6 months, extendable by 3 months. The sole home, household furnishings and other property not subject to enforcement are not included in the liquidation estate. The court may temporarily bar the debtor from travelling abroad. Once the settlements are complete, the individual is released from the remaining debts, except for maintenance payments, compensation for harm to life and health, claims arising from employment relations, and cases where concealment of property, false information or deliberate insolvency has been proved. For 5 years a bankrupt must disclose that status when taking out loans and may not start a case again.

For an individual entrepreneur the same threshold of 200 BRV applies, but there is only one procedure: liquidation proceedings. When it accepts the application, the court attaches the entrepreneur's property, allows up to a month for settlement or an amicable settlement, and once bankruptcy is declared the entrepreneur's registration and licences terminate. Illiquid property worth up to 22.000.000 soums may be excluded from the liquidation estate.

Employees on liquidation

Liquidation of an organisation is a ground for dismissal on the employer's initiative, and it applies even to pregnant women and to employees on sick leave or on holiday. The employer warns each employee in writing against signature at least 2 months in advance, or replaces the warning with monetary compensation for that period; during the warning period the employee is given at least one paid day a week to look for work. No later than 2 months in advance, details of every employee being released are entered into the Unified National Labour System, and liquidation of an organisation with 20 or more employees counts as a mass release.

On the day of dismissal the employee is paid wages, compensation for all unused holiday and severance pay: at least 50% of average monthly earnings for less than 3 years of service with the employer, 75% for 3 to 5 years, 100% for 5 to 10 years, 150% for 10 to 15 years and 200% for more than 15 years. The collective agreement stays in force for the whole liquidation period. In bankruptcy, the employment contract with the director is terminated by the liquidation administrator, and wage debts are settled in the first rank; their existence is a ground for refusing to approve an amicable settlement.

Only the payments tied to liquidation are named here. How to issue the order, calculate average earnings and keep paying them while the employee looks for work, and how liquidation differs from a staff reduction, are set out in the article on dismissal of an employee.

What changed in 2026

• From 23 January 2026 the liquidator notifies the tax authority of the stock of goods subject to mandatory labelling within 3 working days of the liquidation decision (Cabinet Resolution No. 23 of 23.01.2026)
• From 7 May 2026 the Insolvency Agency under the Ministry of Justice has been established; from 1 July 2026 court-appointed administrators are assigned at random by an electronic system, and from 1 December 2026 the Unified electronic platform for conducting insolvency cases goes live (Presidential Decree UP-78 of 06.05.2026)
• From 11 May 2026 an individual entrepreneur who has suspended activity for more than a year with no tax debts is struck off the register automatically, and a dormant company can only be restored within one year (Cabinet Resolution No. 709 of 07.11.2025). The same resolution abolished the tax audit, from 10 November 2025, for companies with a low risk level and income of up to 10 billion soums over 3 years
• From 22 July 2026 the new Law "On limited liability companies" applies: the liquidation decision is taken by the general meeting on the proposal of the supervisory board, the director or a participant, and after a year of dormancy the company is liquidated without a liquidator (Law ZRU-1137 of 21.04.2026)
• From 21 July 2026 the registering authority obtains the certificate confirming that the documents have been deposited with the archive itself, through the Unified National Archive Information System (Cabinet Resolution No. 393 of 20.07.2026)

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between liquidation and bankruptcy?

Liquidation is the voluntary termination of a company by decision of its participants, where the assets cover settlements with all creditors; it is run by a liquidator through a public services center in up to 6 months. Bankruptcy is a court finding that a debtor who cannot settle is insolvent; it is run by the economic court and a court-appointed administrator, and debts left unpaid for want of assets are deemed discharged. If a shortfall of assets comes to light during the liquidation, the liquidator must move the company into bankruptcy.

How long does LLC liquidation take?

The overall term of a voluntary liquidation is no more than 6 months from the day the registering authority is notified of the decision. Within that term, at least 2 months are taken up by accepting creditors' claims and up to 30 days by the tax audit. A company with no debts and a low tax risk level goes through without an audit and therefore closes faster. If the 6 months are missed, the liquidation is terminated and the suspended interest and taxes are collected in full.

Can an LLC with debts be liquidated?

Yes, provided the company's assets are enough to settle: the debts are paid out of the money in the accounts, the proceeds of the sale of property, or funds the participants transfer to the company's account. The entry on liquidation is made only after the tax authority's conclusion confirming that there is no debt. If the assets do not cover all creditors, the liquidator must apply to the economic court for insolvency, failing which the liquidator faces subsidiary liability for the unsatisfied claims.

How do you declare yourself bankrupt in Uzbekistan?

The individual files an application with the economic court at their place of residence if they have not paid their obligations for 3 months and the debt is at least 88.000.000 soums. The application is accompanied by a list of creditors, documents on the property and a copy of the passport; the state fee of 1.320.000 soums is paid and a deposit of 9.520.000 soums is made towards the financial administrator's remuneration. The court either introduces debt restructuring or declares the person bankrupt and sells the property, after which the remaining debts are written off, apart from maintenance payments and compensation for harm.

How many months' pay is due when a company is liquidated?

Severance pay depends on length of service with that employer: at least 50% of average monthly earnings for less than 3 years of service, 75% for 3 to 5 years, 100% for 5 to 10 years, 150% for 10 to 15 years and 200% for more than 15 years. On top of that the employee is paid wages, compensation for unused holiday and, if no two-month warning was given, compensation for the warning period.

Where can the register of bankrupts be found?

Information about the introduction of procedures and about a debtor being declared bankrupt is published in the mass media on the list set by the Cabinet of Ministers: according to the Supreme Court's clarification, that means the newspaper "Biznes-Daily Birzha" and the website of the authorised body. From 1 December 2026 an open electronic register of debtors is kept on the Unified electronic platform for insolvency cases, which becomes the official source of publication.