Frequently Asked Questions

120 €, see more from e-Residency application fee.

https://eresident.politsei.ee/

It’s usually 4-6 weeks.

We provide limited assistance with visa applications; our service is tailored to business and their employees.

Our subscription includes everything you need to run your business – virtual office, contact person service, accounting and compliance to build a successful business.

You can do all kinds of businesses with the e-Residency company, but it’s the most suitable for online businesses. Brick and mortar stores, construction companies and other offline businesses will likely not able to extract benefits from this opportunity.

No problem, get in touch with us and our dedicated support will help you to figure out the most suitable Zero to Scale subscription.

We charge 425€ (+ VAT if applicable) for onboarding to Zero to Scale, which also includes the state fee (265€). This is a one-time cost. Pricing of registering a Public Limited Company in Estonia and incorporation without the e-Residency card is given on request.

Once you have the e-Residency card, it takes 1-2 days to register a company via Zero to Scale subscription.

You don’t need a personal address. Your company, however, has to have a legal address in Estonia. Legal address is part of the Zero to Scale subscription.

There are multiple ways to get the Estonian phone number:

TravelSim, Skype, MessageBird.

Managing the Estonian company is simple. In the case of the Limited Liability Company (OÜ), you have two legal functions: Shareholders and Management Board members. Shareholders appoint the board members and have the power to call back the board members. However, the board member is the one who is liable for company activities and who has representative rights for the company. The management board is the governing function of the company. All your company management functions can be carried out through Zero to Scale and our support team.

Yes, it is. Estonian business registry is very transparent and nominee directors are not allowed.

Only physical persons can be members of the Management Board. You can’t be a politically exposed person nor have any business restrictions from other countries.

Yes, you can change your company name anytime on Estonian business portal or via Estonian notary.

The company can be closed by appointing a liquidator. From there, the liquidator is responsible for closing the company. The liquidator has to be an Estonian resident. Read our article on how to appoint a liquidator here:

https://comistar.ee/dissolving-estonian-company-appointing-liquidator/

If you opened an Estonian company via your e-Residency card and business has grown, then you might need to look upon your financials – if they exceed a certain threshold you might need to be inspected or audited.

Auditing is the review of the company’s annual report, provided that the information that it provides is correct and reliable.

Inspections is the same as auditing but it’s more of a summary assessment. The inspection is less costly.

Audit needs to be done by a sworn auditor and it can’t be done by the same firm or person who does your books i.e. he/she needs to be independent.

Auditing is mandatory if certain measures are meant. Also, the audit can be done before the measures are met if the company decides so.

The audit is mandatory if two of these measures are met

Revenue 4 000 000 €
Assets value 2 000 000 €
Average no. of employees 50

The audit is mandatory if one of these measures are met

Revenue 12 000 000 €
Asset value 6 000 000 €
Average no. of employees 180

Inspection is mandatory two of these measures are met

Revenue of 1 600 000 €
Asset value 800 000 €
Average no. of employees 24

Inspections in mandatory if one of these measures are met

Revenue 4 800 000 €
Asset value 2 400 000 €
Average no. of employees 72

Estonian company corporate tax rate is 0%. Estonia does not have any “corporate tax”, instead, there is the dividend tax rate, which is 20% on gross dividends. Salaries should be taxed in the country where the employee/recipient of the salary resides.

Zero to Scale subscription which includes monthly accounting, tax compliance and an annual report starts at 89€ (+ VAT if applicable) per month.

Yes, an annual report is submitted once a year. It’s mandatory for all Estonian companies, even if your company is dormant and has had no activity.

The VAT (Value Added Tax) rate in Estonia is 22%. Please use the search function on our blog for more information on the VAT rules in Estonia and Europe.

Suppose you wish to open an Estonian bank account, such as LHV or Coop Bank. In that case, currently, you still need to travel to Estonia for identification and have a clear connection to Estonia. If the business has no connection to Estonia, banks may decline to open an account for you. You can open an account in your own country (for the company) or use Fintech companies, such as Wise (formerly known as TransferWise), Paysera, Payoneer, Revolut, SatchelPay, Pervesk, etc.

Yes, some FinTech banks also provide Estonian IBAN for your company. One option is PayHawk.

Yes, we allow multiple shareholders. We allow most company structures, and we can help to create documentation to manage the relationships between the shareholders.

Yes, Estonian company can be a shareholder in other companies as well. Depends on the jurisdiction of the other company, but it’s likely you’ll need to extract the relevant information from the Estonian business registry, apostille it and post it to the country where you’re buying shares. In general, these documents cannot be older than 3 months.

Yes, it is possible to add shareholders after the company has already been established. For more information on different share transfer options, please see our legal services.

Yes, you can remove shareholders and make other share structure changes in your Estonian company. For more information on different share transfer options, please see our legal services.

It’s not mandatory to have a shareholder agreement, but it’s strongly recommended. Please read our article here:

Shareholder Agreement for e-Residency companies

Yes, a legal entity can be a shareholder of the Estonian company, and it can also be a foreign company. In this case, your e-Residency card cannot be used for company establishment, and the registration has to be done via notary using the power of attorneys (PoAs). You need to extract relevant data about the legal entity from the registry, apostille and translate the company documents, and deliver them to us by post. You can also visit Tallinn. The exact process is described on a case by case basis upon request.

You can add new Management Board members via Estonian e-Business register if the new board member has the e-Residency card. If the new board member does not have an Estonian e-Residency card, then changes in the Management Board have to be made via notary.

Every member of the Management Board may represent the private limited company in concluding all transactions and they are liable for all company’s activities. If you are appointing a new person as a shareholder and a board member, you need to have full trust in this person.

No, a board member does not have to have any shares in the company and all the shareholders do not have to be Members of the Management Board.

Yes, you can. You can invest in startups, crowdfunding platforms, cryptocurrencies, stocks, bonds, gold, silver and so forth – it’s up to you how you want to diversify your investments and grow company assets.

Yes, you can loan money to the company.

No, it’s not allowed to loan money from the company to the related persons.

Yes, you can invest in cryptocurrency; you will need to open an account for your business, and you can start investing. Keep in mind that your bank might not support payments to some crypto platforms. Before investing, please contact your account manager, as there are some restrictions, mainly in banking and accounting.

2500€ for LLC (OÜ), and 25 000€ for Public Limited Company (AS). For LLC, the company can be established without making the share capital contribution during establishment and can be postponed until the shareholders start distributing dividends.

If one of the shareholders for LLC (OÜ) is a legal entity, then the share capital has to be paid in right away.

Share capital can be paid via Estonian credit institutions or using online banks like Wise (formerly known as TransferWise). It’s important that the bank can provide a digitally signed proof of payment: Wise, Paysera and Nexpay can provide the digitally signed bank statements in Estonian as well.

You can also do a non-monetary share capital contribution, which can be Bitcoin, laptops or any other asset whose value can be assessed.

Dividends can be paid from previous years profits and distributed as often as you like. But we would suggest paying dividends a few times a year (for example 1-4 times a year).

There is a regular dividend distribution law in Estonia which enables the company to pay only 14% income tax if dividends are distributed every year. This law benefits companies where another legal entity is a shareholder.

Regular dividends are taxed with 20% income tax from the gross payment. If you decide to pay out 10 000 € in dividends, you would need to pay 2 000 € of income tax and you would get 8 000 € net payment.

Yes. You can either distribute dividends, pay liquidation proceeds (taxed as dividends) or pay salary to yourself. Please note that if you have paid in the share capital, you can withdraw the share capital tax-free.

There are two options to distribute money from your Estonian company: to pay a salary or to pay dividends.

Salaries are usually taxed in the country of the residency of the employee/recipient of the salary. You as a shareholder can also be an employee in the company simultaneously.

Dividends are taxed in Estonia.

The company registration time depends on whether you already have an e- residency card or not. With the e-Residency card, it usually takes 1-2 days. With the Power of Attorneys, it usually takes around 1,5 – 2 weeks.
Once the documents are submitted to the Estonian FIU, they take up to 60 working days to process the application.

Opening the bank account for companies doing business in the crypto industry is one of the most complicated issues. The account needs to be opened at a traditional bank or e-money institution or payment service provider operating officially in the EEA and approved by the Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority (FSA). We have created a list of different FinTechs’ where you will find over 20 crypto-friendly banking options.

There’s no specific tax regime for crypto companies in Estonia. Estonian company taxation system has been on the number one position for 4 years in a row on the OECD tax competitiveness index. Estonian companies have no corporate tax. Tax is only paid when profit is distributed. Profit can be distributed by paying dividends (20% tax on gross dividends) or through paying salaries (taxed in the country of residency of the recipient). Estonian VAT rate is 22%.

Every license provider must pay the 10 000€ state fee for the submission of license application. Also, a state fee of 4,000€ shall be paid for the review of an application for the amendment of an activity license in the field of virtual currency. No state fee shall be charged for the review of an application for change if the change is limited to the change of the address data of the location of the company within Estonia.

Comistar has helped more than 60 companies to obtain the Estonian cryptocurrency licenses, including for clients outside of Europe (China, South- Korea, Japan, Australia, India, Canada, and Russia). We have given talks, written books and developed applications for the crypto and tokenization industry and have been active in the crypto space for several years. Comistar provides accounting for crypto companies, legal & tax advisory, as well as tech expertise via our partners.