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One of Estonia's first "e-residents" explains what it means

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Re: One of Estonia's first "e-residents" explains what it means

#141

Post by GordonS »

ibn_ibid wrote: post #55
wiradikusuma wrote: post #54

I'm still unclear of the benefits. Could anyone shed some light: What can we do with it that we can't do now? Let's say that I'm a solo entrepreneur or small SaaS owner from a developing country (e.g from Asia, Africa or LatAm) -- basically, typical HNer who's not from Europe/US.

It is basically a way to make it easier for entrepreneurs to do business in the Eurozone and take advantage of Estonia's generous corporate tax structure. It's mostly a legal / financial device, you can't use it for travel or citizenship purposes.

Are there any real benefits for citizens of other European nations?

For example, I run a small B2B company in the UK - would there be any benefits to incorporating in Estonia?

Re: One of Estonia's first "e-residents" explains what it means

#142

Post by naeemtee »

donatj wrote: post #72
jadedhacker wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I accept your argument that few are starving like a national geographic picture. Instead we have merely undernourished schoolchildren in the richest country in world history. As for the adults, maybe we can write sleep outside until you freeze, get shot/stabbed, or jailed where you're threatened with sexual assault and are in general treated like a disease until you acquire enough money to escape the poverty trap and…

The root cause of childhood hunger is more often than not either criminal neglect or parental/financial incompetence than actual cost. I personally grew up in a single minimum wage income household, which supported 2 adults and 3 children. I'm very familiar with dubious food. That said, it is quite reasonable to meet the caloric needs of a grade school-age child in the United States with little regard for taste or va…

Good lord, thank you for this. It astounds me how completely off-the-mark progressive thinking around poverty is - probably because it's a) not data-driven in the least, and b) primarily championed by people who grew up middle class.

Poverty in the US is NOT the same as poverty in Somalia. It's not even the same as poverty in Estonia. Childhood hunger is the best example - malnourished children in the US are in that state because of abuse.

Anyone that grew up in a truly shitty North American neighbourhood in the last 20 years knows - the people that were suffering were not suffering because of a lack of resources. They made bad decisions, or had health problems, or were abuse victims.

Re: One of Estonia's first "e-residents" explains what it means

#143

Post by collyw »

edwin01 wrote: post #70

I incorporated in Estonia few years ago because of what their promo materials say. It’s a total shitshow unfortunately and while it’s true that you can do everything online, it’s not what you think. All user interfaces are straight from the 90s, only the most basic forms are in english and they want to know everything about your business while setting ridiculous limits. For example, you need to have half of your capi…

2500€ doesn't seem like a huge amount of capital for a businesses. Probably less than a months wage for most developers.

Re: One of Estonia's first "e-residents" explains what it means

#144

Post by kriro »

skeletal88 wrote: post #121
edwin01 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. If your balance at the end of the year isn't half of your starting capital, you need to tell estonian government officials how you are planning to recover from this horrible failure. I didn't know this on my first year and we just made a small investment at the end of the year that made the balance to drop at horrific 40% level which triggered alarms in the government. If you fail to satisfy them with your plan,…

No, it doesn't have to be cash in your bank account, as martkaru explained in the other comment. I can start a company and declare a really expensive couch as it's assets in the balance and it would be ok.

This is not necessarily the case everywhere and for all legal forms. In Germany there's a "Unternehmergesellschaft" which only requires assets of 1 Euro. It is supposed to turn into a GmbH eventually by accumulating 25k in assets. However it is illegal to simply add an expensive couch as this would be a "verdeckte Sacheinlage" which I believe also exists elsewhere as "concealed/hidden contribution in kind" (IANAL)

Re: One of Estonia's first "e-residents" explains what it means

#145

Post by nordify »

edwin01 wrote: post #116
Strom wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if there are additional requirements for e-residents, but for the standard end of the year accounting requirements you don't need to have cash. There's a general net worth requirement, which can pretty easily be filled with company owned equipment like a laptop and smartphone.

"If the net assets are less than half of the share capital or less than the minimum capital requirement of EUR2,500 regarding private limited liability companies and EUR250,000 regarding public limited liability companies, the shareholders must decide on: (1) The implementation of measures as a result of which the net assets would form at least half of the share capital and minimum capital requirement Or (2) Dissolut…

So don't put in the money as share capital.

Re: One of Estonia's first "e-residents" explains what it means

#147

Post by mpweiher »

naeemtee wrote: post #140
mpweiher wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Merit" is not a quantifiable characteristic. It's not? What are SAT scores, school grades, entrance exams for the civil service, election results, income etc.? I would say that these are all ways for society to quantify merit. Did you mean perfectly accurately ? > literally every government that has ever existed would call itself a meritocracy. Nope. Most governments used to call themselves monarchies and would ha…

Your comment just proved the other guys point. You name drop a few politicians for not having "merit" because you disagree with them.

Nope. There are plenty of politicians I disagree with that are competent. Kissinger, for example.

These are incompetent.

Re: One of Estonia's first "e-residents" explains what it means

#148

Post by TangoTrotFox »

gonvaled wrote: post #93
TangoTrotFox wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason I chose Elon Musk is because he's a household name and most people are familiar with his story. However, 67% of all "high-net-worth" Americans are self made, with only 8% directly inheriting their wealth. [1] If you consider only men (as women have an easier time marrying into wealth) it's 76%. I used to be more aligned with what you're saying. An eye opening paper for me was this [2]. I ran into that when…

Is the "size" of the economic groups given in population or income/wealth?

Population.

Re: One of Estonia's first "e-residents" explains what it means

#149

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

juskrey wrote: post #104
edwin01 wrote: post #70

I incorporated in Estonia few years ago because of what their promo materials say. It’s a total shitshow unfortunately and while it’s true that you can do everything online, it’s not what you think. All user interfaces are straight from the 90s, only the most basic forms are in english and they want to know everything about your business while setting ridiculous limits. For example, you need to have half of your capi…

Just having a legal address for your legal entity now costs EUR 300-500 a year for e-Resident, depending on whom you ask. They have added ridiculous "official local contact person" requirement this year, and consulting firms have immediately jumped on the bandwagon with additional 100-300 EUR row in the price list. My bank account I have opened by traveling to Estonia, in Swedbank, was closed "due to inactivity" afte…

> They have added ridiculous "official local contact person" requirement

Is this similar to US "registered agent" requirements [1], or is it somehow more involved/restricted?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_agent

Re: One of Estonia's first "e-residents" explains what it means

#150

Post by juskrey »

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #149
juskrey wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just having a legal address for your legal entity now costs EUR 300-500 a year for e-Resident, depending on whom you ask. They have added ridiculous "official local contact person" requirement this year, and consulting firms have immediately jumped on the bandwagon with additional 100-300 EUR row in the price list. My bank account I have opened by traveling to Estonia, in Swedbank, was closed "due to inactivity" afte…

> They have added ridiculous "official local contact person" requirement Is this similar to US "registered agent" requirements [1], or is it somehow more involved/restricted? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registered_agent

No, it's not even an agent. It's simply a contact god knows what for (for receiving documents they claim), like it can help in the case first person in question doesn't want to be contacted. Basically it duplicates legal address functionality, and even given that I was successfully contacted by email when Estonian tax or statistics board wanted me to correct reporting mistakes.
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