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Comment by pier25 | Hacker News Reader

I'm from the EU and considering incorporating my next company in Estonia.

Anyone else in a similar situation has any recommendations or ideas about this?

In general, I had a good experiences. There are a few annoying things, however: my Estonian bank (VUB) discriminates against non-Estonian customers (even if they are EU citizens/residents) by applying a foreigners fee. Also, the local business register seems to be above data protection laws and sells your information. I receive lots of spam just by being in the register. Also, if you think that because your company is private your financial statements will also be private, that won't be the case. They will still sell the information to anyone for a few euros.

> Also, the local business register seems to be above data protection laws and sells your information.

Jesus that sounds terrible...

Make sure to understand the tax laws when it comes to the company tax residency in scenarios where you're physically not operating in Estonia nor employing people there, nor having majority of your clients there.

See my older comment [1] for some related topcis to research.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21321451

Yes, I'd definitely echo that, a huge amount of tax implications are based on individual residency/permanent establishment so if you're living in say, Germany, for 1/2 of the year + 1 day, you should be expecting to pay at least your personal income taxes there, and likely the business taxes if you're a sole prop without local employees and local business. Of course, if you're a true 'digital nomad' who doesn't establish residency anywhere it gets much trickier. But in general, my advice it to pay for 1-2 hours with an accountant up front before you go through setting up a new entity somewhere

Even if my personal account was in an Estonian bank?

Yes, the laws don't care about who you bank with. If your "center of life" is in Germany, you are required to pay income taxes. Although "center of life" is not defined in detail in german tax law, there are a number of known indicators that are considered. For example, if you reside in Germany for 183 days per year or more, you are required to pay income tax on all of your income.

Having a personal account in a local bank may be a data point if you want to make a case about where you should be taxed but it won't automatically make you have permanent establishment or tax resident in Estonia

Ah, right.

Yeah I should definitely check with an accountant in the country where I will end up residing.

Yeah, highly recommend that. You can also contact Estonian folks who do understand the idea of running a co in Estonia and living elsewhere which isn't common in a country like Germany as local accountants there may be confused, there's a bunch of people on this list that have gone through at least some govt vetting https://e-resident.gov.ee/marketplace/service-providers/

I personally had a good working relationship with 1Office in particular and recommend them (wasn't a client but they were a partner when I worked for the e-Residency program and a buddy's GF works there who I trust and who does good work)

Would you incorporate again in Estonia?

Thanks, I will definitely check this out.

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