Once you have clear the advantages and taxes of creating a company in Estonia and the e-resident kit, what you have left is to set up the company. And that’s what we’re going to talk about in this article: Steps, costs and times needed to create your Estonian company.
Requirements to start a business in Estonia
The most important thing is to have the e-resident card.
Keep in mind that this is the longest process and it can take you about a month from the time you request it until you receive it in the embassy or consulate of your country.
Then you must be clear that not any business is suitable to create a company in Estonia.
As I explained in another article, they must be online businesses that do not operate in a specific country and with clients from all over the world.
Once you have all that in mind, you are ready to create your Estonian company. You just need a business name and pay some fees that I’ll explain now.
Costs of starting a business in Estonia
Although the taxes of having a Estonian company are low, it does not mean that you have to pay some paperwork to the Estonian government. Here are the details:
E-Resident Card
€ 100 This is a procedure that you only have to do once in your life and therefore pay only once. It is a prerequisite if you want to create and run an Estonian company remotely.
Company registration
Register the company in Estonia has a cost of € 190 (+ VAT from Estonia) and a fee of € 25 (+ VAT) for carrying out the online process. This again is a procedure that is done only once and the total cost is 190 x 1.20 + 25 x 1.20 = € 258
Fixed monthly expenses.
Once you have your company incorporated, you need to have a fiscal address in Estonia. There are numerous services that provide you with a virtual office. You can find them on the e-residency program website and they cost around € 25 a month
You will also need to manage the accounting of your company. I have always been in favor of doing this myself, but since we are not experts in the Estonian administrative and tax system, it is advisable to delegate this task to someone who controls the subject and to their daily work.
Luckily there are many suppliers that manage all this, from the registration of the company, the virtual office, the accounting and presentation of taxes as well as resolution of any questions you have for a monthly cost.
In short, depending on the volume of your business, you will have monthly accounting, management and virtual office costs of between € 59 – € 150 (plus VAT)
Bank account
You will need a bank account for the income and expenses of the company. Currently there are 3 alternatives:
- LHV, is an Estonian bank with which you can create your corporate account. It does not have any monthly maintenance costs, but the credit / debit card has a cost of € 2 per month. The only drawback is that to open this account you must go in person to Estonia and have an interview of about 30 minutes with the bank.
- TransferWise Borderless allows you to create a virtual account and receive and make payments in virtually any currency in the world. It has very small commissions when you exchange currency.
- Holvi is another fintech online bank of Finnish origin, but has a special account for e-residents. This is the one I used to open my business account with Estonia, and it can be done entirely online with your e-resident card. It takes around 2-3 days to verify your account and you have it operational. They have an interface in many languages and have a cost of € 9 per month (+ VAT) with a free credit / debit card.
Summarizing:
Unique costs: E-Residency: € 100 Company registration: € 258
Fixed monthly costs: Accounting, Management and Virtual office: € 59 – € 150 / month Bank account: € 9 / month
Registration of the company
You can even start your business before applying for the e-residency, and so the day you pick up your e-resident card at the embassy you will have everything ready to start operating.
After a series of steps, you will have your company ready. If you have doubts about the process, I recommend you read the post in which they explain it in detail.
Open bank account
Of the three banks that I mentioned, I chose Holvi because it could be managed and opened online and have a program specifically designed for e-residents.
To do this you simply have to register, choose your email and in country choose Estonia (e-residents).
Once opened you are asked to verify your identity, again using the e-resident kit and in 2-3 days you will have the operational account.
You only have to wait for the bank to send your credit / debit card to your home.
And you are ready, you have everything you need to start billing your services or digital products on behalf of your Estonian company and you will only have to provide to your accountant or agent the invoices and expenses you have as well as a monthly bank statement so that they can reconcile the documents .
Also published on Medium.