What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

74 pointsby jvilalta75 comments

Join the discussion

Write your take first — we'll ask for email only when you're ready to publish.

  • Hacker News
  • It has been a great experience. Setting up the company was online, and it took 3 days, including the time spent to change the name because the initial name was rejected. You can use Wise for banking, but LHV is also visible but there is an account limit if you don’t live there. Accounting is easy, but you will need an accountant for tax reporting if you have a VAT ID. My accountant charges me 60 euros per month and does an amazing job.
  • UK, USA and Singapore are the popular choices for this. UK is simple and cheaper, Singapore is a bit more expensive. I don’t see a reason to go USA route unless you are seeking investment from there.

    I’m using UK myself. It takes a few forms and half a day to get a working Wise/Stripe account.

  • Its been a few years but I ran BD for the program in '19-'20 -- I would say that people underestimate the difficulty in shutting down the company if that needs to happen, sometimes getting access to a proper bank account can be annoying, and don't always understand the tax implications (ex. if I was resident in Germany, all my customers were in Germany, but I tried to run everything through this Estonian biz and pay taxes only there, that could very well cause you lots of issues/complications).

    Also, shameless plug for people broadly interested in the country of Estonia and how it became a leader in e-gov/tech only a generation after independence from the Soviet Union, I wrote a book about it after being curious myself! https://www.rebootinganation.com/

  • Where are you located? Where will you administer the company from? That impacts your tax situation quite a lot.

    See https://www.e-resident.gov.ee/understanding-cross-border-tax..., look for “Permanent Establishment”

  • Please beware:

    From: https://learn.e-resident.gov.ee/hc/en-gb/articles/3600007215...

    > Corporate tax residency

    > However, some countries have different rules for deciding if a company is tax resident. It is common that, in addition to the place of incorporation, the place of effective management can trigger tax residence. If you run your company from a country with regulations like this, then the company may end up having dual tax residence. This happens when two states believe that the company is tax resident in their jurisdiction and will want to tax the company’s profits.

    This 'It is common that [...] the place of effective management can trigger tax residence' is indeed common.

    by Gys
  • I was surprised how amazing it is ?

      What do you wish you had known before getting started?
    
    Your yearly financial data is public, everyone will know your income / profit. And you will get spammed, your email will be public too.

      How easy has it been to run the company remotely?
    
    Great

      Have you ever needed to travel to Estonia to resolve an issue?
    
    Only visited once to open bank account LHV but I closed it since then and can use remote banking

      Looking back, would you do it again?
    
    Yes
  • Useless + overhyped .

    Company will end up as tax resident from the country where it is managed & controlled .

    If there is an DTA the tie breaker rule applies and the country from where it is managed & controlled gets the right to tax .

    Also you get to enjoy bureaucracy+ dual accounting in both countries .

    If there is no DTA it can lead to double taxation .

    And if you don't have a fixed place of management/business+ tax residency (basically nomading) a US LLC disregarded for tax purposes is a much better fit .

Explore Birbla archives