Countries › Dominican Republic › Guide › 15. Exiting › Dormant companies, temporary closure and suspended RNCs

Dormant companies, temporary closure and suspended RNCs

Last verified: 2026-10-30 · Status: Stable

A taxpayer can ask for a temporary closure of up to three years, after filing a return marked Cese, and stops filing most returns during that time. Silence is not an exit: DGII suspends an RNC after 24 months without filings, and a suspended taxpayer cannot use DGII services. DGII can strike off a suspended company after three more years with no operations, no debt and no assets, while company law lets others sue to dissolve an idle company.

USD figures use the Banco Central de la República Dominicana reference selling rate of RD$60.9007 per US dollar for 29 October 2026, the latest row in its published rate file on the verification date, rounded to the cent.

Key facts

Temporary closure, maximum	3 yearsNorma General 04-2021 art. 25, as of 2026-10-30 · in force
Non filing period before RNC suspension	24 monthsNorma General 04-2021 art. 24, as of 2026-10-30 · in force

The rule

1. A taxpayer can request a temporary closure for at most three years. First it files an income tax return marked Cese, covering from the day after the last year declared to the effective date.Norma General 04-2021 sobre el Registro Nacional de Contribuyentes, art. 25 and paragraph I, 2021-06-07 official text · verified 2026-10-30

2. Once approved it stops filing returns, except the informative income tax return and the asset tax return and payment if they apply. DGII can still pursue debts and omissions from earlier periods.Norma General 04-2021 sobre el Registro Nacional de Contribuyentes, art. 25 paragraph II, 2021-06-07 official text · verified 2026-10-30

3. DGII reactivates the taxpayer if it detects operations, on request, or when the period ends.Norma General 04-2021 sobre el Registro Nacional de Contribuyentes, art. 25 paragraph III, 2021-06-07 official text · verified 2026-10-30

4. During a temporary closure the taxpayer cannot request or issue fiscal invoices. If it does, DGII ends the closure and reactivates obligations from that date. If a request is denied, or operations are found after approval, obligations run back to the start date.Norma General 04-2021 sobre el Registro Nacional de Contribuyentes, art. 25 paragraphs IV and V, 2021-06-07 official text · verified 2026-10-30

5. Without a temporary closure, having no operations in a period does not excuse informative returns.Norma General 04-2021 sobre el Registro Nacional de Contribuyentes, art. 9 paragraph II, 2021-06-07 official text · verified 2026-10-30

6. DGII suspends taxpayers who file no returns for 24 uninterrupted months, or do not pay non declared taxes for 24 months. A suspended taxpayer cannot carry out tax procedures until it files or pays.Norma General 04-2021 sobre el Registro Nacional de Contribuyentes, art. 24 and paragraphs I and II, 2021-06-07 official text · verified 2026-10-30

7. DGII can deregister a legal entity suspended for three straight years with no evidence of operations and no debts or assets recorded. It publishes a list 30 days first, the taxpayer can object, and reconsideration is available afterwards.Norma General 04-2021 sobre el Registro Nacional de Contribuyentes, art. 26 no. 3 and paragraph, 2021-06-07 official text · verified 2026-10-30

8. The chamber records a suspension or temporary closure on the meeting minutes or unanimous partners' minutes, and the notice of meeting where not all attended.
Cost to do it: Modification fee by capital band, from RD$800 (about US$13.14), plus RD$50 (about US$0.82) per document.Cámara de Comercio y Producción de Santo Domingo, S.R.L. requirements, section B.9, 2026-10-30 official text · verified 2026-10-30

9. An S.R.L. can be dissolved for three straight years without activity, and an S.A.S. after two straight fiscal years of disuse, with any interested party able to sue in the second case.Ley 479-08, General de las Sociedades Comerciales y Empresas Individuales de Responsabilidad Limitada, as amended by Ley 31-11, art. 137 literal d; art. 369-10 paragraph, 2011-02-08 official text · verified 2026-10-30

State	Meaning	Practical effect
Activo	Enabled for tax purposes	All returns due
Suspendido	No filings for 24 months	No tax procedures until cured
Cese temporal	Pause approved by DGII, up to three years	Informative return and asset tax continue
Dado de baja	Definitive end of the relationship with DGII	RNC disabled

States of the RNC

Worked example

A company holding a building worth RD$30,450,350 (about US$500,000.00) on its books pauses operations for two years. Temporary closure stops ITBIS and withholding returns, but the asset tax continues, at the 1% DGII applies that would be RD$304,503.50 (about US$5,000.00) a year before any income tax credit. Pausing a company with real assets is therefore not free.

Step by step

Decide whether the pause is real. If there is no plan to restart, close the company.
File the return marked Cese.
Record the pause at the chamber if the partners approved it.
Diary the end date, since the taxpayer goes back to active automatically.
Keep filing the informative return and paying asset tax.

Common traps

Issuing one invoice during the pause ends it.
Strike off by DGII needs no debts and no assets, so most abandoned companies do not qualify.
A DGII strike off is not a company law dissolution. The legal person, its directors and its filings remain.
Unfiled years keep building formal duty fines, so a late closure can cost more than a timely one.

Sources

← Closing with DGII: final return, guarantor and RNC deregistrationClosing down: ending employment and deregistering at TSS →

Get rule changes weekly

Free. One email a week from The LatAm Thread.

One more step after you press the button: we take you to Substack, where your email is already filled in. Confirm there to start. No spam, unsubscribe anytime, we never share your address. By subscribing you agree to the privacy policy.