Setting up your business with e-residency
Business opportunities in Estonia are attractive and with e-residency, pursuing your business idea in an attractive business climate has never been easier. The attractive business environment of Estonia is also accessible for other foreign entities or people who do not have e-residency. Expat Legal Estonia aims to be a service provider for everyone wanting to get their company started and where you can get all your answers from.
1. Company in Estonia can be founded online (with an e-residency card or a residence permit card) or at a notary. For the notary visit you need to bring your passport or if you would like someone else to do it, you need to send a power of attorney from your country of residence - with an apostille and translation to English (accompanied with an apostille as well). If the founder is a company, additional requirements such as business registry excerpt, articles of association etc apply.
Expat Legal Estonia has advised in all kinds of business incorporation - simple and more complicated. We will make sure you know all the compliance regulations beforehand (such as possible license requirement or an obligation of economic activity notification). We offer the necessary contact person and address service for the most competitive price which also includes monthly free advice on the questions relevant to running your business.
2. It is probable that when your business evolves, you need to add more shareholders, sell your share, split the existing share, issue new share etc. These kind of transactions can be done online or at a notary. Everything that involves selling or transfer of a share usually has to be done at a notary or someone else can do it with a power of attorney like described above - there are options to do share transactions without a notary and we can advise you on that.
Please take into account that in addition to the power of attorney, separate shareholder decisions might be necessary, also consents from other shareholders as well as consent from your spouse if the share is your marital common property. We work with these questions on a daily basis so we know what to prepare for the transaction and get everything sent to the Estonian Company Register.
3. It is also sometimes necessary to liquidate the company. It can be time consuming but usually there is nothing complicated in that - just a number of formalities that we will take care for you. Liquidation can be done via normal procedure or expedited procedure if your company has had no economic activity.
4. When starting your business, you need to understand the taxes, monthly accounting and also how you do your banking. We have numerous accountancy contacts that suit your needs and we can also together with you determine, what are the possible tax implications (maybe running a company from Estonia does not make any sense?). We work with the traditional Estonian banks and know the sector. Opening an account is a real challenge but with so many fintech solutions out there - everyone can find a solution.