Liquidation of your e-resident company and an easier deletion procedure

Closing/liquidating an Estonian company is not difficult but there are still legal deadlines and requirements that have to be met. So what to do when you have stopped the economic activities and have no debts?

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. As from this year, the decision also has to have the final annual report with it so co-operation with an accountant would be necessary as well.

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 the process takes a minimum of 7 months from start to finish.

From this year there is an alternative and easier process in cases where the company has had no economic activity. For this to happen, the board members and shareholders have to confirm the fact that the economic activities have not started (digital signature is needed). There is no need for any annual or financial reports. The notice is published in the Official Journal by the registry and the company is deleted from the Commercial Registry after 3 months. The process can be done with the help of an adviser by giving a power of attorney.