Articles
OSS and IOSS in a nutshell for Estonian companies
Starting from 1 July 2021, cross-border e-commerce and services to consumers will be taxed in a new way in the European Union. In this article, we examine what the new regime will bring to Estonian companies working with Amazon FBA and independent e-shops selling to consumers in multiple EU countries.
10 useful things to know after you register an Estonian company
Starting an Estonian company online has never been easier. At Unicount, we’ve reduced it to a simple three-minute task. While working with Estonian company founders over the past two years, we’ve noticed the same questions come up a lot immediately after their Estonian company is registered.
So we put together this list of ten of the most useful things to know.
Read more
Four additional places of issuing e-Residency digital IDs
Last year, the Ministry of the interior, the Police and Border Guard Board and BLS International Services Limited signed an agreement to increase the accessibility of the e-Residency programme in different parts of the world. As of today, digital e-Residency IDs will also be issued in Johannesburg, Singapore, São Paulo and Bangkok. In addition to issue points operated by BLS, e-residency digitaal ID cards are also issued at Estonian foreign missions. Digital IDs can currently be picked up at 50 issue points across the world and future plans include expansion to another fifteen destinations.
Read more
The ultimate guide to banking for Estonian e-residents
Banking has changed dramatically for Estonian e-residents during the last couple of years. Traditional Estonian banks are now far more selective and usually require a strong local connection or an in-person visit. Because of this, most new e-resident companies in 2024–2025 choose fintech accounts instead. The most common providers today are Revolut Business, Wise, and Paysera, with Revolut becoming the fastest-growing choice thanks to its stronger KYC onboarding and smooth support for Estonian OÜs. This guide explains what has changed, which options work for e-residents in 2025, and what you should consider when opening an account for your Estonian company. It is a must read before registering a company in Estonia through e-Residency. Read more
Attracting investments and exercising of share options has been simplified
The amendments to the Estonian Commercial Code that entered into force on the 1st of August 2020 simplified the attraction of investments and exercising share options, which makes Estonia more attractive to foreign investors and solves several problems that arose in practice.
Read more
Top things to do after you register Estonian company
You can register a company in Estonia with Unicount in five minutes. Once you receive your company registration notification, here are the first steps you’ll probably want to take with your new company.
First of all download your registration certificate and shareholders data in English. These documents are often useful, especially when applying for banking, payment providers, or other services. Downloading them is free and takes just a minute or two.
For the registration certificate, go to the Estonian Business Register, search for your company then select “Registry card”. This takes you to the registry card view where you can download machine translated English version as a PDF.
Does e-Residency work? Here’s what the data shows
While it is easy to start an e-resident company online, some have heard about problems accessing banking, some are confused about tax implications, and others just wonder if maybe digital residency is all a bit overhyped.
Estonia’s e-Residency programme has generated heaps of positive headlines around the world and been the buzzword among entrepreneurs in coworking spaces on every continent. But does the Estonian digital citizenship actually work? That’s a question we see a lot online.
Read more
How do I register a ‘beneficial owner’ of my Estonian company?
Estonia has one of the world’s most transparent business environments. This helps ensure Estonian companies can be trusted worldwide, even though they can be run entirely online from anywhere by Estonians and e-residents.
A key part of this transparency is ensuring it’s clear who controls each and every company. As an Estonian company director, you are legally obliged to declare the persons benefiting from your company’s activities, the so-called ‘beneficial owners’. This must be done by everyone after starting a company through Unicount, as well as updated within 30 days whenever there is a change to your company’s beneficial owners.
Free template: Add a new shareholder to an Estonian company online
There’s a very simple way to add a new shareholder for an Estonian company online – even if that’s a person who doesn’t yet have an Estonian digital ID or if it’s a foreign legal entity. To help you do this, we created a free template you can download and submit to the Estonian Business Register.
We recently explained in our previous article about how to add a new shareholder for an Estonian company online. Instead of transferring part of existing shares to a new co-owner, which is quite complex, you can simply issue new shares to them online instead.
Read more