It was great until they turned racists and stopped me from using the service because of my nationality (Russia), even though neither me or the business had anything to do with Russia.
If you are Russian, you have something to do with Russia
Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?
31–40 of 85 posts
Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?
#32Please beware: From: https://learn.e-resident.gov.ee/hc/en-gb/articles/3600007215... > Corporate tax residency > However, some countries have different rules for deciding if a company is tax resident. It is common that, in addition to the place of incorporation, the place of effective management can trigger tax residence. If you run your company from a country with regulations like this, then the company may end up h…
Hence the executives/boardmembers-all-fly-to-some-island (Jersey is the one in my mind), have board meeting in the airport, sign the papers, and all fly home? Company stays "in" Jersey, none of the humans need to live there?
That is unfortunately not how it works. Most commonly the place from which decisions are made on a day to day basis is used. This results in the country in which 50% or more of your directors reside for 183 days a year.
So if 50% or more of your directors spend 183 days per year in the UK then your Estonian based business becomes UK tax resident in the eyes of the UK.
Do not underestimate the complexity of these rules.
Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?
#33I think banking is still the biggest issue if you’re not an Estonian resident. Honestly, I’d avoid the EU in general. There are only about four or five good places to set up a company and stay connected to the financial system: the US, especially Wyoming or Delaware, Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
London post-Brexit is problematic outside of the legacy stuff in City of London, but why not Dublin?
Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?
#34Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?
#35It was great until they turned racists and stopped me from using the service because of my nationality (Russia), even though neither me or the business had anything to do with Russia.
russian is not a race.
Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?
#36Please beware: From: https://learn.e-resident.gov.ee/hc/en-gb/articles/3600007215... > Corporate tax residency > However, some countries have different rules for deciding if a company is tax resident. It is common that, in addition to the place of incorporation, the place of effective management can trigger tax residence. If you run your company from a country with regulations like this, then the company may end up h…
Hence the executives/boardmembers-all-fly-to-some-island (Jersey is the one in my mind), have board meeting in the airport, sign the papers, and all fly home? Company stays "in" Jersey, none of the humans need to live there?
That does not work necessarily work in the UK anymore.
Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?
#37I switched to 1Password after the last one.
The LastPass thread is over there -----> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48671468
(you'd probably be downvoted anyway because of the insubstantial anecdote)
Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?
#38Its been a few years but I ran BD for the program in '19-'20 -- I would say that people underestimate the difficulty in shutting down the company if that needs to happen, sometimes getting access to a proper bank account can be annoying, and don't always understand the tax implications (ex. if I was resident in Germany, all my customers were in Germany, but I tried to run everything through this Estonian biz and pay taxes only there, that could very well cause you lots of issues/complications).
Also, shameless plug for people broadly interested in the country of Estonia and how it became a leader in e-gov/tech only a generation after independence from the Soviet Union, I wrote a book about it after being curious myself! https://www.rebootinganation.com/
Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?
#39Any tips for a 2 person European company. One founder based in Amsterdam, the other in London. We are close to setting things up, some input from other founders would be great
Probably a UK limited liability partnership would be an option .
But you have to investigate how the Dutch will treat it .
You could apply for a advance tax ruling with the Dutch tax authorities before doing anything
Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?
#40I was surprised how amazing it is ? What do you wish you had known before getting started? Your yearly financial data is public, everyone will know your income / profit. And you will get spammed, your email will be public too. How easy has it been to run the company remotely? Great Have you ever needed to travel to Estonia to resolve an issue? Only visited once to open bank account LHV but I closed it since then and…
Same experience for me, it's been great! I never needed to visit since I could use Wise for banking. The only thing is that surprised me was the tax rate, when I created my Company the advertised rate was 20/80 but in reality it was ~25/75 and it increased since.
Yes, it was stable for a long time but has been changing mainly due to factors associated with the war in Ukraine (spikes in inflation, especially related to energy prices as well as a need for increased defense spending)