Nov 30, 2020

Nov 30, 2020

4 min read

4 min read

The costs of running a company in Estonia

Explore the financial implications of running a company in Estonia. Understand the administrative costs, tax benefits, and potential expenses

Explore the financial implications of running a company in Estonia. Understand the administrative costs, tax benefits, and potential expenses

If you are thinking about opening a company, it's vital to understand which administrative and other costs you will face throughout the lifecycle of your legal entity. Sure, there is no way to count all possible costs as there might be some unpredictable things, regulation might change and you could find a "gold mine" that will require your company to hire 1000 employees (which is about 0.07% of the Estonian population).

But even without gold mines, it's difficult to find a better jurisdiction to incorporate a company than Estonia. The first reason for such attractiveness has to do with taxes — Estonia is the only EU member to offer an absolute 0% corporate tax on retained or reinvested profits and at the same time, Estonia isn't an offshore jurisdiction.

Given that this statement is often misunderstood by our clients and might be misinterpreted by some companies operating in the incorporation field, we ask you to notice that 0% corporate tax on retained or reinvested profits doesn't mean that you won't pay taxes as some of our competitors claim (so yeah if you heard it from someone, please keep in mind that some other promises or advices might not be 100% correct or honest as well).

So, now that we've talked a bit about benefits, let's get back to actual costs. Please notice that in this article we will focus on costs with Enty.

Two Categories of Costs

We divide all costs into two categories: one-time costs associated with incorporation and recurring costs while operating the company.

One-time Costs

  • Company incorporation (€350 — €1090)

  • e-Residency application and delivery (€120)

  • Bank account opening (processing of an application by banks) (from €0 to €100)

Recurring Costs

Several Services Under a Single Subscription:

  • Contact Person

  • Accounting Services

  • Invoices Creation

  • Contracts and e-Sign

  • HR

Opening a Company (One-Time Costs)

No matter how you decide to open your company, the first cost that will arise is the state incorporation fee of €290, which is included in the incorporation fee with us. However, there are 2 ways how you can open a company with enty:

With e-Residency (€350)

Open a company fully online;

  • For those who have already obtained an e-Residency card;

  • Each shareholder and Director must have an e-residency card;

We do not charge anything for the assistance with obtaining your card, however, there is a government fee of €100 and an additional €20 for the package delivery. You can apply for it on the government website.

With Notary Service (€1090) (Without e-Residency)

Incorporation via Power of Attorney;

  • To open a company you will need to visit a notary office at your place of residence with a documents package that we will send to you (Statement, Power of Attorney + your ID or International Passport);

  • If you wish to open a company with more than one shareholder, you will need to ask each person to go to the notary at their place of residence as well. (+€100 each)

The translation is included only for the notary certification. If an additional translation is required, we will bill you separately.

Another one-time cost that will appear after incorporating a company is a bank account opening. If opening a bank account itself is free in most banks, while banks might charge from €50 to €200 on average for processing your application. As some banks may not open a bank account for some companies due to the nationality of company owners.

So it might lead you to open an alternative business account in alternative institutions. The cost will depend on your needs and data, in order to ease up the process for you, we have launched a solution that will help you make the right choice and will be able to consult you on a suitable solution as well. Outside of that, we prepared an article to help you choose the most suitable fintech provider for your company.

Maintaining a Company (Recurring Costs)

Each company in Estonia is obliged to have a Virtual office (contact person and legal address). Also, you'll have to file annual or monthly reports, obtain a VAT number, get OSS, IBAN, issue invoices and much more. These services of company maintenance are already included in our single subscription.

  • Lite subscription starts from €33 / month and gives you full access to our services except for accounting

  • Standard subscription starts from €51 / month and provides you with annual accounting

  • Pro subscription starts from €93 / month and gives you access to monthly accounting and declarations

  • E-commerce subscription starts from €110 / month and provides your company with special accounting for e-commerce businesses

The final price depends on the number of needed documents and type of business

Let's explore what is included in each subscription

Control Panel — One Subscription for Company Management

Our Control Panel includes several services under a single subscription

Virtual office

  • contact person services

starting from Lite subscription

Finances

  • Open a bank account, connect it to Enty

  • Bank statement creation

  • Observe and track all finances in one place

starting from Lite subscription

Invoicing

  • issue invoices (unlimited)

  • store and send invoices

  • notify your customers to pay invoices

  • reflect invoices in Accounting Reports

  • add payment links and get paid faster

starting from Lite subscription

Contracts and e-Sign

All in one subscription starting from just €8 per month

All in one subscription starting from just €8 per month

Explore Enty

  • Swiftly create and store contracts without templates

  • Email two-side agreements

  • Store counterparty information

  • E-sign and co-sign documents

starting from Lite subscription

HR

  • Create documents to hire a worker

  • Store worker's information

  • Calculate payroll taxes

starting from Lite subscription

Yearly Accounting

  • Annual Reporting

  • 1 Payroll Report

  • 1-hour consultation with an accountant once a year

starting from Standard subscription

Monthly Accounting

  • Monthly Reporting

  • 1 Payroll Report

  • 1-hour consultation with an accountant once a month

  • monthly declarations

available with Pro subscription

As you may see, the costs of running a company in Estonia vary highly based on the incorporation type, company needs, and accounting requirements. But needed to be mentioned, that these costs are muuuch less compared with other popular jurisdictions.

Recently, we conducted a large-scale study comparing Estonia with the other 5 countries on the matter of company incorporation. Plunge in and explore how much you would spend on opening and maintenance in other places.

Company maintenance with Enty is quite simple: incorporate a company and choose a suitable subscription. After that, you can manage your back-office processes from a single company profile. Easy as that!

Now you can subscribe to our free plan to explore the platform and choose the most suitable subscription