Foreign company registration in Estonia, start your business operations in the prestigious jurisdiction

Company registration in Estonia is one of the best options available on the market.

First of all, this brings a great taxation benefit, undistributed income tax is 0%, and it is hard to believe in that for sure. In order to develop your business, it is possible to use all the income to grow your firm and even invest the incoming funds into stocks, crypto, real estate, and other profitable assets. Reinvested profits into the company are not subject to tax. Also, we would like to mention that Estonia is a European jurisdiction, and it will be much easier to open a proper corporate account or attract partners from other European countries.

It is also possible to obtain Estonian residency under certain conditions as a business owner.

So you and your family can completely relocate to Estonia and operate from within the country

New company registration online in Estonia? Is it even possible?

The answer is yes, as the Estonian government prepared specialized websites for company registration, maintenance, and anything around making your life as an entrepreneur as easy as possible. This is another big advantage for the businessmen to consider and use in the future. As a business owner, you can make company structure changes, sign documents, onboard employees, or even pay taxes. Pretty much everything can be done online. Even the application for a corporate account can be done through the banking website by making use of the e-residency and leaving out the need to travel anywhere. Right now, during the global pandemic situation and changing conditions, it is a valuable possibility and another benefit that might attract more entrepreneurs.

How to open a company in Estonia? What are the steps and requirements?

If you decide to start a business in Estonia, the LegalBison team will gladly assist you with all the steps.

The process is very simple and starts by you proving us with some basic information. These include your desired company name, the planned business activity, expected turnover (obviously just a rough estimation), and some identity verifying personal documents that will be requested by your dedicated account manager. The registration process is usually done through the notary using notarized and apostilled PoA (Power of Attorney). We are preparing proper documents and assigning an appointment with the notary. After incorporation, the company appears in the registry after a few days. The process can be done online via an e-residency card which makes the process a lot faster. The only disadvantage is the time it takes to obtain the e-residency card. We suggest starting the two processes simultaneously, so your life as an entrepreneur focuses on the business rather than administration aspect. After your e-residency is obtained, it is possible to use various governmental website to apply for the legal entity registration.

Corporate account in a local Estonian bank

It is possible to open an account only if you are planning to run the business within the country, or you have some business relations with the local companies. Banks in Estonia are strict and selective. In any case, it is always possible to open a business account in any other jurisdiction. Estonian companies are accepted in most countries by financial institutions. Of course, everything depends on the business activity and different risks that are connected with every type of business. We will be glad to assist with the account application and opening process, we provide services from A to Z.

Popular types of businesses in Estonia

Most of the people heard about this country because of IT, since Estonia counts as the European IT hub. There are many major companies here: Eleks, Axon, Bamboo Agile. Fortunately, there are other options for development for example tourism, e-commerce, real estate, and many more. If you want to set up a unique business, you can even apply for  special startup company conditions. If your company qualifies as a startup, it will be possible to obtain a residency permit for shareholders and workers of the company and special operating conditions. All in all, it is very simple to start a business in Estonia from any point in the world without ever being in the need to travel. This is more important than ever – in times of corona.

Crypto business activity

Estonia is a great place to start a crypto business. Since this business is fully regulated it is possible to obtain a license. There are some requirements, such as local physical office, proper AML officer, local responsible board member, suitable corporate account and issued 12000 EUR share capital. Those requirements might look costly, but local licensing is the cheapest in Europe. At the moment, there are more than 400 firms, who are operating under the Estonian crypto license. The regulations change from time to time and become stricter, but it is still the most friendly jurisdiction to start a crypto business.

Are there any jurisdictions with similar conditions?

There is another jurisdiction with the same taxation benefits, Latvia.

It is also possible to run the business there as a foreign business owner. But the process of incorporation is more complicated, and it is impossible to manage the company fully online.

Also, the business activities like crypto are not regulated in Latvia, and it is impossible to get a license for such an activity in a proper way there.

If we are not talking about European countries, there are the UAE with 0% corporate taxes and Free Zones. UAE is even more friendly in terms of taxation, but the costs of the company setup and maintenance prices are much higher. As an example, the share capital requirement for the crypto license obtainment in UAE is 1.000.000 USD, which is not a small amount, especially for a startup company.