Ecuador Shell Companies List (SRI): Check a Supplier

Ecuador shell companies list from the SRI: 678 flagged entities, what each flag means and how to check a supplier's RUC step by step before you pay.

Short answer: Ecuador's tax authority, the SRI (Servicio de Rentas Internas), publishes a register of shell, nonexistent or sham companies, and invoices they issue cannot support costs, expenses or tax credits. Matched against the RUC (tax ID) of every company in the country, 678 are flagged: 648 as shell companies and 30 for nonexistent transactions. Our Ecuador companies with RUC from the SRI dataset carries both flags for all 534,467 entities, along with status, tax regime and activity, for a one-time US$349.

If you only need to check one supplier, the SRI's free lookup is enough. If you screen hundreds of suppliers or your whole vendor base, a file with the match already done is faster.

What the SRI means by a shell company

The SRI classifies a company as a shell or nonexistent company (empresa fantasma o inexistente) when there is no real activity behind its invoices. A separate classification covers companies with sham activities or nonexistent transactions, which issue invoices for operations that never happened.

In the dataset this shows up in two columns, filled on every row (true or false):

calificacion_sri_detalle holds the official wording of the classification and calificacion_sri_fecha the date the resolution was served, between September 8, 2016 and August 19, 2026.

How the 678 flagged companies break down

By RUC status: 487 are suspended, 188 dormant (pasivo) and 3 active. Almost all no longer operate formally, but their old invoices can still sit in the books of the companies that bought from them.

By head office province: Guayas has 576, followed by Pichincha (65), Santa Elena (8), Manabí (7), Azuay (7) and El Oro (4).

By entity type: 608 are corporations (sociedades anónimas), 39 limited liability companies, 8 civil or de facto partnerships and 3 simplified joint-stock companies (S.A.S.).

By year of classification: most were served in 2016 (356) and 2017 (170). The pace slowed after that: 36 in 2018, 45 in 2019 and between 6 and 14 a year since 2020. One of the 678 has no date.

How to check a supplier's RUC in 6 steps

1. Check the RUC format. For companies it has 13 digits and ends in 001. The third digit is 9 for private companies (524,632 in the dataset) and 6 for public bodies (9,833).
2. Check the status. estado_contribuyente can be active (288,550 companies), dormant (162,021) or suspended (83,896). A suspended supplier that keeps invoicing is a red flag.
3. Check the flags. contribuyente_fantasma and transacciones_inexistentes should be false. If either is true, read the detail and the resolution date.
4. Compare activity and age. actividad_economica (7-character ISIC code) should relate to what the company sells you, and fecha_inicio_actividades tells you whether the company is new.
5. Look at the footprint. establecimientos_abiertos and provincias_con_establecimientos show whether it has physical premises. A company with large contracts and no open establishment deserves a question.
6. Add financials and sanctions. Match the RUC against the Ecuador company financial statements (191,277 companies from the Superintendency of Companies) and screen against the sanctions lists.

Free SRI lookup vs the full file

For one new supplier a month, the SRI lookup is enough. To screen 2,000 suppliers, matching your vendor master by RUC against a single file is faster and leaves an audit trail.

What else the file contains

Besides the flags, each row has the legal name, trade name (147,939 companies), entity type, tax regime (general 488,180, RIMPE 34,973, simplified 11,314), whether the company must keep accounting books, withholding agent status (43,219) and special taxpayer status (7,173), head office province, canton and parish, and the number of establishments.

The file comes from the RUC register the SRI publishes as open data, with a cut-off of August 31, 2026, filtered to legal entities. The shell company register was checked on October 7, 2026. It does not include natural persons, legal representatives or national ID numbers. It has no phones or emails either; for contacts there is the Ecuador business database with phone numbers. More Ecuador files are under Ecuador company databases.

FAQ

Where can I see the SRI shell companies list?

The SRI publishes its shell company register on its website. In our dataset it is matched against every company in the RUC register: 648 flagged as shells and 30 for nonexistent transactions.

What happens if I bought from a shell company?

According to the SRI, invoices issued by these companies do not support costs, expenses or tax credits. Review each case and the resolution date with your tax advisor.

Can a shell company be active in the RUC register?

Yes, though it is rare: of the 678 flagged, 3 are active, 487 suspended and 188 dormant.

How often is it updated?

Quarterly updates are planned. Buyers get new versions at no extra cost.

Can I test it before buying?

Yes. The dataset page shows the schema and the first 100 rows without signing up, and a free account lets you download 500 rows. Payment is one-time, with PayPal in USD.

Screen your vendor base

Open the Ecuador companies with RUC and shell company flags dataset, check the columns in the sample and download 500 free rows with a free account to test the match against your supplier list. For Mexico, see the Mexico SAT 69-B list download guide.

Sanctions lists and compliance data