Estonia e-residency application now online
apply.e-estonia.com
apply.e-estonia.com
We will soon redirect the HTTP page to HTTPS (thanks for catching that!). For now you can simply visit https://apply.e-estonia.com. We are also working to update the country lists.
After being approved as an e-Resident you are welcome to apply for a bank account and payment providers. As noted on the site, we are working on easier ways to facilitate this.
Benefits for US and global entrepreneurs include access to EU and European markets, and truly hassle-free online company administration. We are working on expanding services for individuals as well, which currently include two-factor authentication, document signing, and encryption.
Thank you again -- we are truly excited to launch this programme in open beta and welcome further questions at e-resident@gov.ee!
What exactly do you mean with "the first government-backed digital identity"? The German Identity card, for example, can be used for online authentication and it can store a digital signature on its chip. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_identity_card#Chip ]
No. If you're a German citizen you can get a German ID card, even if you never set foot in Germany. See for instance http://www.brasil.diplo.de/Vertretung/brasilien/pt/Konsulars... (in Portuguese, instructions on how to get a German ID card for Brazilian residents).
http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-...
Sadly, rulings like this prevents a startup like Reddit, HN, or really anything that allows UGC from being practical via e-Estonia.
Best of luck tho.
"https://apply.e-estonia.comhttps//apply.e-estonia.com/feedba...
Which is obviously broken. I got an email confirming I paid and so far nothing else.
It's a government identity you can apply for and use online that allows you to register companies, among other things- right?
As an electronic resident of Estonia what are you entitled to that you can't do in Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK, etc? The only difference I can see is that in those places you likely need to visit the country to setup the company. Those countries certainly wouldn't call that process airplane-Residency.
Electronic mail is mail that you send electronically. Here, e-Residency is not residency in any definition of the word, even the ephemeral kind. An e-Residency does not afford the bearer any entitlements not offered to a non-bearer, save for not requiring a flight to Estonia.
That said, I appreciate the innovation in an online government ID card for foreigners. The name is a mistake. More accurate would be to call it e-Airplane.
As I haven't read everything about this, I'm willing to admit there's a chance I'm wrong.
And while the initial set of benefits don't seem a lot like residency (except insofar as being eligible for a digital ID of this type -- in countries that offer them -- is, itself, typically something that requires citizenship or residency, so in a sense calling the program that provides access to it to non-citizen non-physical-residents "e-residency" may be reasonable on that basis alone), its overtly an initial "beta" set with planned expansion.
If they plan to expand the program to allow things typically afforded to residents of a country then that would be something. I doubt it however.
- need to visit Estonia to open a bank account
- filing taxes with an accounting software in Estonian only
Solve those 2 issues and the only one left is the unavoidable double taxation complexity: you could try adding more information to the site about this subject, for example stating with which countries Estonia has currently established treaties to avoid double taxation.
I dont get it, does this mean there is 0% corporation tax in Estonia? What are the taxes on wages then as in if your estonian company pays you? What other taxes should one be aware? what is the VAT rate
so many questions but their answer is "talk to a professional" which means visiting Estonia, answering some of these questions up front would make things clearer and make it easier to decide whether to apply for one
BTW has anyone here done it? a blog post on experiences pros and cons would be great...
There is a dividend tax, making this business environment expecially lucrative if your plan is to reinvest profits.
VAT is 20%
Income tax for physical person is 20% and the company has to pay on top of it roughly 33% of social taxes. There's a plan in place to reduce social tax by 1%
No other catches.
What is the attaction of this?
I would expect that VAT is only relevant for products sold to Estonian residents and income/social tax only relevant if you employ residents of Estonia.
Income tax is typically based on residency, I believe the US is the only developed country in the world that taxes non-residents on income.
Disclaimer: I have not looked at Estonian tax law
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_value_added_ta...
You may be right in the income and social tax, but I suspect establishing a business in Estonia may require visiting the country at some point.
If so, what's the downside of having your business based in Estonia vs the US with respect to VAT?
[1] http://www.happybootstrapper.com/2014/im-us-whatll-happen-ju...
So this also means you can live the nomad life. Although I guess this isn't their (only) target audience.
Doing business is a separate (though connected) subject. The e-residency is broader than business alone.
For business you'll need an accountant to do tax-related work. You'll probably be able to find one which you can communicate with online, so your nomad lifestyle is still safe.
It gets a lot more attractive (at least compared to other EU countries) if they would take the next step and simplify tax work so you don't need to spend sums like €2000-€3000 on an accountant every year.
If selling in Europe (common tax area), VAT is mandatory at the point of sale. If the seller is outside Europe (common tax area) and purchaser in Europe (common tax area), the receiver of goods or services is liable to need to pay the tax, and buyers don't like tax/price surprises at point of import or use.
As for social taxes... if there are no Estonia resident employees this doesn't seem an issue.
For bank account - this seems like a headache - for banks as much as anyone, as they have to provide anti-money lending screening, which means 'know your customer' which means a physical visit from the customer. I'm sure Estonia has branches of HSBC, Citi, or other international networks, and they're working on, for example, allowing you to walk into a HSBC/Citi/etc located near where you are, and do the KYC from there. For me, this is the deal-breaker. If opening a bank account can happen without need to visit Estonia, then I'd try this, otherwise, without being able to receive or make payment, it is a nice idea but not in my use-case.
So 21% I guess
http://taxfoundation.org/blog/estonia-has-most-competitive-t...
As in most (all?) EU countries, all tax/business related work passes through an accountant. Am I right to believe this is different in the US? At least for one-man/small businesses?
Please stay tuned for news on .ee domain registration! :)
Thank you again! We appreciate your interest in the world's first transnational government-backed digital identity, and hope to continue this level of quick feedback and support. Please keep sending us bug fixes and feature suggestions!
http://www.grantthornton.ee/infokiri/en/the-digital-e-reside...
Has any of you already open one ? How was the experience ?
I have no idea what "ways around it" you might be referring to - but generally, unless it is an IRS accepted structure, even if it is compliant with the letter of the law, you can expect tens of thousands of dollars in costs of proving that compliance if you are audited.
I recommend everyone who considers this option to get a really good international tax professional on board. Those are hard to find, and very expensive - but totally worth every penny.
(To be fair, they also do internet voting, which I'm not a huge fan of...)
Although entire languages get it wrong - in German the UK is translated as "Großbritannien". Edit: they do have translation for UK ("Vereinigtes Königreich") but I've never heard it said/written yet... I think I'll start using it.
A worse version is when "England" is used to refer to the UK. It's very common, maybe less so in official contexts.
Just as we call The Netherlands "Holland".
Or the United States "Amerika".
I accept that people outside the UK might not care, but I don't think that's necessarily the case. There's also a significant difference between making the mistake in casual conversation and on a formal document.
It's not when people mix up "englisch" with "walisisch" and "schottisch".
I'm sure you don't know and care that southern Peruvians from Arequipa like to be called Arequipaños and wouldn't like being mistaken with Northern Peruvian from the Jungle etc. Thing is they're the same to any outsider.
To the outside world, most Americans are and sound pretty similar though. Sorry if that offends you.
Canadians live in America, and get peeved when people call them Americans. Doesn't make them any less Americans, though.
You have no right to demand that.
Additionally, you have no idea about the connotations. You may find it offensive, but it is not. Not at all.
This distinction has traditionally never been very important in Germany, so people didn't habitually make the distinction.
That's exactly the point: you have no idea about usage and connotations in German, but still consider yourself an expert who should have the power to prescribe a foreign language.
As an aside: we're also lumping together (dancing) balls and (foot)balls. And lots of other things.
And how do we survive that? Context.
I was clearly replying to "Although entire languages get it wrong - in German [...]".
The poster I was replying to was claiming that other languages are wrong.
And I resent your accusations.
Maybe you can see the problem if I explain it in this way: you can become British (meaning "UK-ish"), but you cannot become English.
Not only is it technically wrong, but it also contributes to perpetuating the dominance of England over the other parts of the UK.
I try to clear midconceptions/misunderstands of other countries when I know better, I would invite you to do the same now you know more :)
Hopefully I can soothe some your resentment of my accusation too - I have been learning about Germany and the forms it existed in before the unification of the states in 1871 - the culture goes back a lot further than this, I am currently learning German and planning an extended tour by bicycle (when I have learnt enough) so I can get more deeply into this topic.
When the distinction is important we can express it, no problem. But when it isn't?
In English--I have no opinion about other languages--it would certainly seem odd to refer to the entire of the UK as "England." For example, you'll get looked at funny if you say you're going to Edinburgh in England next week.
[Edit: My recollection is that it also used to be more common to refer to the "U.K." as Great Britain.]
The American comparison would be more suitable if you referred to the whole of the USA as Washington DC.
To be picky, there are technically 6 different types of British citizenship:
It also makes it a pain to find, I spent a good amount of time looking through different entries (UK, United Kingdom, British, England, Great Britain etc.).
e-Residency does not confer citizenship, tax residency, residence
or right of entry to Estonia or to the European Union.
The e-Resident smart ID card is not a physical identification
or a travel document, and does not display a photo.There's an incredible opportunity for Indian nationals (and former nationals) to take advantage of the transition period.