Guide

The company has gone bankrupt. What will happen to your salary and debts?

Source: Olga Lenskaya, Oleg Shepeluk. Photo: archive Onlíner

The word “bankruptcy” sounds intimidating: it seems that it always follows a ruined organization, unpaid wages, obligations to counterparties and tax authorities. The reality is calmer. If an employer, counterparty or your own company ends up in this unpleasant procedure, it’s important to understand simple facts: who and when can initiate the proceedings, how long it lasts, where your money stands in the queue, and what you can expect when the debtor has no money left. Together with experts from a legal firm we examine how the bankruptcy procedure works in Belarus. Do employees continue to receive salaries in such cases? Has the number of bankruptcies in the country increased? Which companies and why most often go through this procedure, and how to survive it with minimal problems?

What this article is about

What is bankruptcy
What the law says
How the number of bankruptcies in Belarus has changed
Why it is disadvantageous for creditors to bankrupt a company
Which companies go bankrupt more often
What is the claim queue and where salaries stand in it
Bankruptcy — with a cool head: guide

This material was already published on Onlíner. We updated it in September 2026 and added current information that will be useful.

What is bankruptcy

Bankruptcy (insolvency) of a legal entity is a comprehensive and strictly regulated state procedure recognized by the arbitration court. The basis is the persistent inability of the debtor company to fully satisfy creditors’ claims and/or fulfill its obligation to pay taxes, fees, etc.

Alina Marchik
Lawyer at the legal firm REVERA

According to the expert, unlike simple temporary insolvency, the key feature of bankruptcy is the irreversible financial insolvency, when the organization has exhausted all resources to restore solvency.

The main goal of the procedure is to balance

The bankruptcy procedure involves several stages, such as observation, financial recovery, external management, bankruptcy proceedings, and amicable agreement. Each stage has strict time frames and objectives, and the entire process is controlled by an arbitration manager approved by the court.

Timely initiation of bankruptcy proceedings allows avoiding subsidiary liability for the company's management and owners, as well as ensuring a civilized completion of the enterprise's activities.

What the law says

Only a court can declare a company bankrupt in Belarus. The application for opening a bankruptcy case can be submitted by:

the debtor themselves (if they have not been able to pay at least one of their obligations within six months or if the value of their assets is less than their debt obligations at the current date);

their creditors, as well as employees who have not received their salary, and government agencies, including the State Control Committee, the prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Taxes and Duties, the State Customs Committee, and others.

The court establishes a protective period during which a temporary manager is appointed to the organization. The manager determines whether there are grounds for recognizing the company as economically insolvent or bankrupt. If the documents comply with the law, the court either introduces the procedure of bankruptcy proceedings - judicial sanitation - or opens liquidation proceedings.

As of October 1, 2023, a new "bankruptcy" law "On Regulating Insolvency" has been in effect in Belarus. It was adopted in 2022 and replaced the previously effective law "On Economic Insolvency (Bankruptcy)". Not only the name has changed, but also the approaches.

One of the main changes is that bankruptcy proceedings, sanitation, and liquidation proceedings are now independent procedures.

Previously, sanitation and liquidation proceedings were part of the bankruptcy proceedings. Additionally, sanitation is now only possible for companies - individual entrepreneurs can only be declared bankrupt, and sanitation is no longer provided for them by law.

In addition, a number of procedures have been simplified:

For debtors - it has become easier for them to submit a bankruptcy application.

For creditors - they no longer need to provide reliable, documentarily confirmed information about the debtor's insolvency.

The new law also extends the period of compulsory execution (six months instead of three) and raises the debt threshold at which a creditor may file for bankruptcy. Under the new bankruptcy law, subsidiary liability can be applied only in bankruptcy proceedings (previously it could also be applied after the case was concluded).

How the number of bankruptcies in Belarus has changed

In answering this question, experts refer to official data from the Department for Restructuring and Bankruptcy of the Ministry of Economy and note that in the first half of 2026 the following trends emerged:

• the number of businesses for which insolvency and bankruptcy cases are opened decreased by 20% (fewer cases were opened in January–June of the current year than in the same period of 2025);
• the majority of opened cases (78.4%) involve debtors who have ceased operations or are in liquidation;
• the number of unfinished insolvency and bankruptcy cases decreased by 13.3%;
• in certain regions, compared with the same period

Mogilev region — 17.

It is interesting that the Grodno region turned out to be the only region where the number of new cases increased (there were 19, and now there are 31), and the Minsk region showed the most significant decrease — from 98 to 41.

Experts also note that the indicator of realized debtor property and property transferred to creditors to satisfy their claims is quite high. Thus, the data from the Ministry of Economy includes the following figures: 75.4% versus 72.3% a year earlier.

It is essential to note that this indicator includes both the property that was successfully realized and the property that was not realized (but was accepted by the creditor to satisfy the debt). At the same time, the property may also include uncollected accounts receivable. Therefore, it is very difficult to form an accurate representation of the real, monetary repayment of debts to creditors.

The variation in numbers by region is also significant:

Brest region — 99.9%,

Grodno region — 96.0%,

Gomel region — 78.1%,

Minsk region — 70.7%,

Vitebsk region — 64.9%,

Minsk — 42.9%,

Mogilev region — 34.4% (a year earlier, it was 92.0%).

Why it is not advantageous for creditors to bankrupt a company

There is a common perception that the bankruptcy procedure is initiated by dissatisfied creditors who have not been repaid. However, the statistics from the Ministry of Economy suggest the opposite. The picture is as follows:

Who initiated the case

1st half of 2025, %

1st half of 2026, %

Tax authorities

36.2

38.8

Liquidation commission (liquidator)

25.4

31.4

The debtor themselves

15.3

19.9

Creditors

5.7

6.6

FSZN and other agencies

17.2

3.0

Representative of the debtor's employees

0.2

0.3

The majority of economic insolvency cases are initiated by tax authorities, liquidators, and, surprisingly, the debtor themselves. Ordinary creditors rarely initiate the process on their own. As a rule, the initiator is the tax authority, and other creditors monitor the situation and join the already initiated bankruptcy procedure. There are several reasons for the development of such scenarios.

Firstly, the complexity of initiating the procedure. Despite the fact that creditors no longer need to provide documentary evidence of the debtor's insolvency, a number of conditions are still required to submit the relevant application.

For example, the requirement for the amount of debt must meet one of the three following points (paragraph 2 of Article 10 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus dated 13.12.2022 No. 227-Z "On Regulating Insolvency" (hereinafter referred to as the Law)):

the presence of debt for the payment of wages and other payments in accordance with labor legislation in the amount of 1,500 or more basic units (at the current moment - 67,500 Belarusian rubles);

the presence of debt on mandatory payments in the amount of 100 or more basic units (at the current moment - 4,500 Belarusian rubles), and if the debtor is a town-forming or equivalent organization, a state organization (an organization with a state share) - in the amount of 3,000 or more basic units (at the current moment - 135,000 Belarusian rubles);

the presence of debt on monetary obligations in the amount of 500 or more basic units (at the current moment - 22,500 Belarusian rubles), and if the debtor is a town-forming or equivalent organization, a state organization (an organization with a state share) - in the amount of 30,000 or more basic units (at the current moment - 1,350,000 Belarusian rubles).

Secondly, the initiation of the bankruptcy process requires financing. The person who submits the bankruptcy application is obliged to pay the manager money for their remuneration - three nominal accrued average monthly salaries in the republic (Article 34 of the Law). The consequences of non-payment are the termination of the bankruptcy or insolvency case (Article 39 of the Law). This is the main reason for the bias in statistics on the initiation of disputes in favor of state bodies.

Thirdly, disbelief in the result (actual receipt of funds) and/or disbelief in the fairness of the ratio of efforts invested and the result. In some cases, creditors, understanding that the amount of debt is not significant, decide not to initiate the bankruptcy procedure, but to take a waiting position (until tax or other authorities or creditors start the procedure, in order to join it later).

It is much easier to join an already initiated bankruptcy procedure than to initiate it independently.

Which companies go bankrupt more often

In terms of industry, according to the Ministry of Economy, the statistics of open cases by type of economic activity are as follows:

Type of activity

1st half of 2025, %

First half of 2026, %

Wholesale and retail trade

38.8

40.7

Transport activities

13.6

15.1

Construction

11.8

11.0

Manufacturing industry

4.8

4.8

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

2.0

4.7

Other activities

29.0

23.7

The figures show that the majority of opened bankruptcy cases are in the wholesale and retail trade, transport activities, and construction sectors.

The fewest opened cases are in agriculture, forestry, and fishing.

What is the queue of claims and where do wages stand in it

To be honest, the chances of actually receiving money are significantly higher for workers than for other creditors, and since March 2026, they have had another very serious tool of influence. But let's break it down in order.

The law establishes four queues in the register of creditors' claims. And wages are in the second queue, immediately after claims for compensation for harm to life or health, provided that the debt arose before the opening of the bankruptcy proceedings. If after - such debt is satisfied outside the queue (in accordance with Article 119 of the Law).

Queue of claims

Composition of the claim (Article 119 of the Law)

1st queue

claims of individuals to whom the debtor is liable for causing harm to life or health

2nd queue

calculations for payment of wages and other payments in accordance with the Labor Code to people performing work for the debtor under civil law contracts, as well as payment of mandatory insurance contributions and other payments to the Social Security Fund

3rd queue

claims of creditors for mandatory payments (except for payments referred to the second or fourth queue), claims of pledge creditors in the part secured by the pledge of the debtor's property, within the amount of funds received by the debtor from the realization of the pledged property, claims of the open joint-stock company "Agency for Asset Management"

4th queue

claims of other creditors, pledge creditors for obligations in the part not secured by the pledge of the debtor's property, as well as pledge creditors in the part secured by the pledge of the debtor's property, but exceeding the amount of funds received by the debtor from the realization of the pledged property

The rules in this queue are simple: the requirements of the creditors of each subsequent queue are satisfied after the full satisfaction of the requirements of the creditors of the previous queue. Thus, only after the requirements of the creditors of the first and second queues have been satisfied, the funds are distributed among the rest in the amount of: 80% - proportionally to satisfy the requirements of secured creditors in the part secured by collateral, and the requirements for reimbursement of payments made.