Do you think it's a viable solution for doing online business? How is that working out for you in general?
Ask HN: Anyone doing business using Estonian e-residency?
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Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing business using Estonian e-residency?
#2I got my E-residency last year & find it kind of useless.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing business using Estonian e-residency?
#3I got my E-residency last year & find it kind of useless.
What have you tried doing with it?
Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing business using Estonian e-residency?
#4You can register a company with it in 1 hour. Then open a bank account with Revolut Business and run it from anywhere in the world. It really depends on what you want to use it for.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing business using Estonian e-residency?
#5Would it be easier to convince EU customers that your US (SaaS?) business is trustworthy if you operated in Estonia?
Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing business using Estonian e-residency?
#6After looking into it for a while, i decided not to do it. Context: I live in Germany for roughly 2/3 of the year, rest is traveling.
Not sure where you are located, but if you spend the majority of your time in a other EU country (e.g. Germany) you will have a very hard time explaining to the local tax authorities that the company entity is not effectively being managed from Germany. And when you fail to explain this, the company entity becomes a german tax resident and you have to deal with all sorts of paperwork and expensive tax consultants. This is especially true when you have no local employees in Estonia.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing business using Estonian e-residency?
#7In most cases that setup does not absolve you from tax obligations where you live.
I can see a benefit in setting up a business or branch in EU in general, if you have customers in EU. Otherwise why Estonia specifically?
Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing business using Estonian e-residency?
#8In most cases that setup does not absolve you from tax obligations where you live. I can see a benefit in setting up a business or branch in EU in general, if you have customers in EU. Otherwise why Estonia specifically?
> Otherwise why Estonia specifically?
Because the Estonian government is fairly unique in that it will issue an electronic identification card to anyone who requests it and passes a background check, permitting that person--regardless of nationality--to use most Estonian government services, like business registration and tax filing, from anywhere.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing business using Estonian e-residency?
#9In my experience a lot of freelancers are using it (especially when they like to work in different countries). Personally I’m quite happy using it and it’s a way better experience in comparison with the chamber of commerce in the Netherlands when you start freelancing (had some bad experiences unfortunately when they sold my data to shady companies which will target you with fake invoices/bad deals/spamming). Another great feature is that you are in full control how to pay yourself (salary/board member fee/dividends) which can have serious tax advantages depending on your country’s tax system.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone doing business using Estonian e-residency?
#10I too have been curious, and I haven't seen anything beyond "nifty factor" to compel me to set it up.
In most cases it won't positively benefit people in terms of taxation.
However, it might perhaps be useful for people coming from countries that are looked down upon by some significant EU countries. In that case, having an Estonia registration might increase the credibility of the business from an initial (and sometimes important) external view.