Palestine

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Overview

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Identifiers

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Sector regulators

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Legal structures

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How documents combine

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Documents to collect

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Collection notes

• Legal Registration: Issued by the Companies Registration Department, Ministry of National Economy, under Companies Law by Decree No. 42 of 2021 (eff. April 2022). Reflects the company name, type, registration number, date of registration, registered capital, and registered address. Available via the PalBusiness e-registration portal. Processing time approximately two weeks with complete documentation. Individual merchants receive a Merchant Registration Certificate (شهادة تسجيل تاجر) from the MNE commercial register.
• Constitutive Documents: Constitutive document submitted to and certified by the Companies Registration Department at incorporation. For LLCs and OPCs: contains name, objects, capital, member details, and governance rules. For shareholding companies: separate Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association (by-laws). Must be prepared in Arabic; standard form templates available through the PalBusiness portal. Foreign companies must submit Arabic-translated and notarised constitutive documents.
• Tax Registration: Issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Finance upon registration under Income Tax Law No. 17 of 2004 (as amended by Amendment No. 8 of 2011). The same registration covers both income tax and VAT. VAT is now governed by Decree Law No. 26 of 2024 at a base rate of 16%; registration is mandatory for all taxable persons conducting business or investment activity. Tax registration may be processed through the MNE commercial register in a unified one-stop procedure. TIN is a 9-digit numeric identifier (PS-TIN scheme).
• Operating Permit: Issued by the Ministry of National Economy (and/or relevant municipality) to authorize commercial activity. The Professional Trade Permit (رخصة مزاولة المهنة / إذن ممارسة التجارة المهنية) is required for individual merchants and certain regulated trades. Companies generally obtain their operating authorization through the certificate of incorporation plus tax registration; however, certain commercial activities and regulated sectors additionally require municipal or sector-specific permits. Chamber of Commerce or Chamber of Industry membership is typically required for conducting commercial trade.
• Sector-Specific License: Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA, established under PMA Law No. 2 of 1997; Banking Law No. 9 of 2010) licenses banks, specialized lending institutions, money changers, and payment service providers. Palestine Capital Market Authority (PCMA, established under Capital Market Authority Law No. 13 of 2004) licenses securities brokers, investment advisors, insurance companies (under Insurance Law No. 20 of 2005), financial leasing, and financial mortgage companies. The Palestine Exchange (PEX) is the supervised stock exchange. Financial Follow-Up Unit (FFU) is the financial intelligence unit under AML/CFT Decree Law No. 39 of 2022.
• Governance Records: LLCs designate one or more managers in the memorandum of association; the MNE registration extract reflects current manager details. Private and public shareholding companies have a board of directors (مجلس الإدارة) whose members are listed in the MNE records. Changes in management must be notified to the Companies Registrar. The MNE company extract is the primary document evidencing current directors/managers.
• Signing Authority: Board resolution authorizing a named signatory to act on behalf of the company, or a notarized power of attorney (وكالة). For LLCs, a manager resolution suffices. No statutory form prescribed; company letterhead resolution is standard practice. Palestine is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention — documents executed abroad for use in Palestine require full consular legalization (foreign notary → foreign MFA → Palestinian representative mission); similarly, Palestinian documents for use abroad require Palestinian MFA authentication followed by the receiving country’s consular legalization.
• Address: Lease agreement (no time bound) OR utility bill OR bank statement, with utility/bank dated within 90 days. Lease agreement is also required as part of the MNE commercial registration process (proof of premises). Accepted for both registered-address and operating-address verification.
• Good Standing: The Palestinian Companies Registration Department does not issue a distinct certificate of good standing as a standard product. Current active status is evidenced by a recently dated MNE company extract (مستخرج من السجل التجاري) showing the company remains registered and has not been struck off. Request a fresh extract dated within 30 days as the good-standing equivalent.

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Person roles

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Notes

• Palestine is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention. Documents from Palestine executed for use abroad require Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs authentication followed by the receiving country’s consular legalization. Documents executed abroad for use in Palestine require the full foreign-notary → foreign-MFA → Palestinian diplomatic mission legalization chain. This materially increases onboarding friction for cross-border entities.
• The Companies Law by Decree No. 42 of 2021 came into force in April 2022, replacing the Companies Law No. 12 of 1964. It introduced significant modernizations including the One Person Company (OPC), simplified deregistration, and updated foreign-company rules. References to the 1964 law in older documents are superseded.
• The Palestinian financial system operates without a central bank; the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) acts as the quasi-central banking authority under PMA Law No. 2 of 1997 and Banking Law No. 9 of 2010. The Palestinian economy primarily uses Israeli New Shekel (ILS), Jordanian Dinar (JOD), and US Dollar (USD) — there is no Palestinian currency.
• AML/CFT framework was substantially updated by Decree Law No. 39 of 2022, replacing Decree Law No. 20 of 2015. The Financial Follow-Up Unit (FFU / وحدة المتابعة المالية) is the financial intelligence unit, housed at the PMA. The National Committee for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing was established under Article 29 of Law No. 39/2022.
• The Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank; the Gaza Strip is under separate governance by Hamas and has been subject to severe restrictions since 2007, with full blockade conditions since October 2023. Most Palestinian Authority institutions, including MNE, PMA, and PCMA, operate from Ramallah in the West Bank. Entities registered in or operating from Gaza face additional compliance considerations.
• The Palestine Exchange (PEX) is based in Nablus and regulated by the PCMA. Shares trade in Jordanian Dinars (JOD) and US Dollars (USD). As of 2026, PEX is classified as a Frontier Market by FTSE Russell.
• Foreign companies seeking to operate in Palestine must register a branch (Article 245) or representative office (Article 252) with the Companies Registrar, submitting Arabic-translated and notarised constitutive documents and the most recent audited financial statements from the parent’s home jurisdiction.
• Company registration can be initiated online via the PalBusiness e-registration portal (palbusiness.gov.ps), developed with UNCTAD/UNITAR technical assistance and World Bank financing. Tax registration may be completed through a unified one-stop process at the MNE.