You’ve already received your card — and that marks the end of the part of the process where everything is straightforward. From here on, the administrative work begins: a contact person and a registered office address, which must be renewed every year; an annual report, which is mandatory even if the company has been dormant for the whole year; a bank that may close your account without explanation; an internet service provider that has stopped replying to emails; and a card that expires in five years’ time.
If you’re unhappy with your current internet service provider, bear in mind that you’re not tied to them. Changing the contact person and registered office address is a decision made by the board and requires a notification to the Commercial Register; the entry is updated within one working day, remotely, without a notary and without re-registering the company. There is no such thing as a ‘relocation’ – this is a myth, convenient for those who do not want to let you go.
We operate as a licensed provider and an official member of the e-Residency marketplace: we provide a registered address and a contact person, maintain the accounts, prepare the annual report, and if the accounting records are in disarray, we sort them out and resolve any issues raised by the registry before the matter escalates to the compulsory dissolution of the company.
| Topic | Practical guidance |
|---|---|
| Contact person and address | Mandatory, provided that no member of the board of directors resides in Estonia, the EEA or Switzerland |
| Change of provider | Board resolution + application to the register; the entry is updated within 1 working day, remotely |
| Who may act as the contact person | Only a licensed service provider, a notary, a law firm or a chartered accountancy firm |
| Annual report | Mandatory every year, including years with no financial activity; failure to submit leads to formal notices, fines and compulsory deregistration |
| Validity period of the card | 5 years; renewal requires a new application and payment of the state fee again; must be submitted in advance |
| State fee | €150; from 1 January 2027 – a flat rate of €165 |
| Renewal for citizens of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus | Only if both of the following conditions are met: the card has previously been issued and received + ongoing business activity in Estonia |
| e-Residency Marketplace | A directory of providers with prices, reviews and comparisons; check provider reviews and restrictions before signing up |
| Income tax | 0% on reinvested profits; 22/78 when dividends are distributed |
| Bank account | Not guaranteed and may be closed: banks and EMIs carry out their own risk assessment |
| What the card does not provide | Residence permit, visa, right to work, bank account, Estonian tax residency |
If you have any questions, our managers are always on hand and ready to help! If you’re unsure about your company’s status, simply provide your registration code and we’ll check it against the register free of charge and tell you straight away what needs to be done urgently.
The most common thing we hear from e-residents is: ‘I’d leave, but they’ve got my registered address.’ This is a misunderstanding, and it costs people years of an inconvenient service.
The registered address and contact person are not the property of the provider, nor are they part of your company. These are two entries in the Commercial Register, which can be changed by a resolution of the board. The company remains the same: the same registration code, the same bank account, the same contracts with clients, the same history. Nothing needs to be re-registered, no notary is required, and there’s no need to visit in person — the new provider enters itself into the register remotely, usually within one working day.
What you really should do when switching:
A separate note on choosing a new provider: check the profile on the e-Residency marketplace, where you can see services, prices, restrictions by client type and reviews left by e-residents, verified via digital signature. This is the only public source that is difficult to manipulate.
The logic that ‘if the company wasn’t operating, there’s nothing to report’ doesn’t apply in Estonia. An annual report is always mandatory, including a zero-turnover report, and must be submitted every year regardless of turnover. This is precisely where e-resident companies most often fall down: the project has failed, the card is lying in a drawer, letters from the registry are sent to the service provider, and the service provider forwards them to the former email address.
The situation then escalates: the registry sends a warning, then imposes a fine – and may impose it again, — notifies the Tax and Customs Department, which in itself draws attention to the company, and eventually initiates compulsory deregistration proceedings. Deregistration may seem like a convenient way for the issue to ‘sort itself out’, but it is not: the fine remains, and a board member usually only discovers the problem when they try to access the funds in the account.
The practical conclusion is simple: if you no longer need the company, you must wind it up in accordance with the procedure, rather than simply abandoning it. If you do need it but the accounts are overdue, it is cheaper to settle the debts now than in two years’ time.
A significant proportion of e-residents face this issue, and it is almost never due to anything you have done wrong. Banks and fintech providers carry out their own risk assessments, periodically review their client portfolios and close accounts across entire categories. The e-Residency programme does not interfere with these decisions and cannot influence them – this is explicitly stated in its own documentation.
What works:
We prepare a package of documents and a business model description for onboarding, but the decision is always made by the bank or EMI itself, and no provider can guarantee that an account will be opened. Promises to the contrary are a cause for concern.
If you’re just choosing a jurisdiction and haven’t received your card yet, start with the basic page for non-EU founders
| What | When | What happens if you miss a deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Renewal of the contact person and registered office | Annually, on the contract date | The company is formally left without a contact person; the register issues a directive |
| Annual report | Annually, within 6 months of the end of the financial year | Warning, fine, attention from the tax authorities, compulsory removal from the register |
| VAT returns (KMD) | Monthly by the 20th, if a VAT number is held | Late payment penalties and the risk of VAT number cancellation |
| Payments to individuals returns (TSD) | Monthly by the 10th, where payments have been made | Late payment penalties, fines and automatic additional tax assessments |
| Accuracy of data in the register | Upon any changes (address, beneficiaries, board of directors) | Personal liability of the board, account freezes and enquiries from the bank/EMI |
| Renewal of the e-Residency card | 2–3 months before the expiry of the 5-year term | Loss of access to the digital signature, e-MTA and government e-services |
The card is valid for five years. Renewal is not an automatic update, but involves a new application, with the state fee payable again and a return visit to the issuing office to collect a new card; it makes sense to submit your documents in advance, several months before the expiry date, as the processing takes time. The government fee is currently €150, and from 1 January 2027, a flat rate of €165 will apply regardless of where you collect your card.
When the card is replaced, the company and all its entries in the register are retained — only the physical medium and the keys change. However, until you have the new card, you cannot sign documents with a digital signature, which means you cannot submit reports or make changes to the register yourself.
This is precisely why the gap in the card’s validity is most inconvenient for those who handle the administration themselves.
A special procedure applies to citizens of Russia and Belarus: renewal is only possible if two conditions are met simultaneously — the card was previously issued and received, and the applicant carries out ongoing business activities in Estonia whilst fulfilling all associated obligations. A residence permit from another country does not remove this restriction, and the application process takes longer due to additional checks. Practical conclusion: if this applies to you, ‘ongoing business activity’ is not an abstract concept, but a state of the company that must be confirmed by financial statements and actual transactions, and this must be established well in advance of the month in which the application is submitted.
No notary is required; the company is not re-registered; the registration code and account number remain unchanged. The only thing that really requires attention is ensuring the dates are synchronised so that there is no period without a contact person.
| Tax | Rate 2026 |
|---|---|
| Profit retained by the company | 0% |
| Dividend distribution | 22/78 (effectively 28.21 per cent of the net amount received) |
| VAT, standard rate | 24% |
| Threshold for compulsory VAT registration | €40,000 of Estonian taxable supplies per year |
| Personal income tax | 22 |
The additional 2% corporate income tax planned for 2026 has been cancelled, as has the increase in income tax to 24 per cent.
The e-Residency programme and some marketplace providers will reimburse Ukrainian entrepreneurs for the costs of setting up a company. The terms and list of participating providers change from time to time — if this applies to you, please check the current requirements before making a payment; we’ll help you sort it out.
We’ll carry out a free review of your registration details (address, reports, compliance notices). Within 24 hours, we’ll tell you straight up which risks require immediate action and provide you with a transparent quote.
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