How to close your company in Estonia?
If you have stopped the economic activities of your company and want to close it then the shareholders can take the decision of voluntary dissolution/liquidation of the company. The law prescribes strict deadlines for different stages that have to be followed even if you have not had any economic activity so the whole process will take at least 7 months. The good news is that you do not have to do anything during the process and the liquidator takes care of everything. The liquidators can be a board member or someone else hired for that.
It is important to note that even if you have no activities then just leaving your company as it is can bring problems - you should still file annual reports or otherwise fines could be issued.
The costs involve state fees in the amount of 32 euros and possible accountant fees as well as liquidator fees. Fees also depend on the amount of economic activity the company has had. If the company has had no economic activity the total costs could be be between 350-400 euros.
1. The first step is for the owner or owners to take a formal decision to liquidate and a liquidator has to be appointed. This decision then has to be reflected in the Commercial Register. If the shareholders have a digital card for signature then this is rather easy.
2. The next step is to publish the liquidation notice in the portal: https://www.ametlikudteadaanded.ee/ and call for all creditors to come forward with their possible claims. The deadline for this is 4 months and liquidator shall pay the amounts due after the end of that deadline. The liquidator will already take care of that.
3. All annual reports should be correctly done and presented to the Commercial Register, also tax declaration made and the company deleted from the VAT obligation.
4. As a final step it is possible to prepare the final balance sheet of the private limited company and to distribute the remaining assets. The final balance sheet and asset distribution plan has to be sent to the Commercial Register as well. Finally it is possible to delete the company from the Commercial Register and as said before, the process takes a minimum of 7 months from start to finish.