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Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

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41–50 of 85 posts

Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

#41
post #27

UK, USA and Singapore are the popular choices for this. UK is simple and cheaper, Singapore is a bit more expensive. I don’t see a reason to go USA route unless you are seeking investment from there. I’m using UK myself. It takes a few forms and half a day to get a working Wise/Stripe account.

Finally somebody who knows their stuff. I never understood why people preferred Estonian incorporation given that it's almost certainly more expensive and less convenient than the other options.

I think the main reason is to have a business incorporated within the EU if that's relevant for the person. Delaware is great, and UK filled this role until Brexit but after that if you needed an EU incorporated company it was a massive pain basically everywhere except Estonia which was relatively cheap and everyone in the industry speaks English

Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

#42
post #12
post #10

Please 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…

Also estonian law doesn't recognize trusts, so if you want to save your assets for your children that's a problem.

I assume we are taking about a foreign trust and not an Estonian one. In what regard? When it comes to money laundering? Profit distributions?

Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

#43
post #8
post #2

Where are you located? Where will you administer the company from? That impacts your tax situation quite a lot. See https://www.e-resident.gov.ee/understanding-cross-border-tax... , look for “Permanent Establishment”

I am in the US currently, would be managing initially from the US. I understand there will be US tax complications, but I can/would deal with those.

I saw this a lot when I ran BD for the program (I'm also an American) and its good you know there will be US tax complications but I would say that unless you expect to 1) have many EU customers and 2) working remotely globally and redomicile elsewhere so you are not considered US tax resident that it probably doesn't make more sense than using something like Stripe Atlas to just set up an LLC or C-Corp

Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

#44
post #27

UK, USA and Singapore are the popular choices for this. UK is simple and cheaper, Singapore is a bit more expensive. I don’t see a reason to go USA route unless you are seeking investment from there. I’m using UK myself. It takes a few forms and half a day to get a working Wise/Stripe account.

Finally somebody who knows their stuff. I never understood why people preferred Estonian incorporation given that it's almost certainly more expensive and less convenient than the other options.

Its for sure over hyped but its not useless. Its nice that you can reinvest the profits within the company and only pay taxes on distribution (if this works of course depends on where the owner is. But at least in Sweden it works).

Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

#45
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finally somebody who knows their stuff. I never understood why people preferred Estonian incorporation given that it's almost certainly more expensive and less convenient than the other options.

I think the main reason is to have a business incorporated within the EU if that's relevant for the person. Delaware is great, and UK filled this role until Brexit but after that if you needed an EU incorporated company it was a massive pain basically everywhere except Estonia which was relatively cheap and everyone in the industry speaks English

Your username is cool

Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

#46
post #6

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.

Michael Scott: I am a victim of a hate crime. Stanley knows what I'm talking about.

Stanley: That's not what a hate crime is.

Michael Scott: Well, I hated it, a lot, okay.

Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

#47
post #6

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.

Oh I wonder why they don’t wanna do business with Russians. Could it be because Russians are threatening to invade, bomb and occupy Estonia?

It’s your choice to decide to keep your Russian citizenship. Then you have to pay the price of being a Russian citizen.

Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

#48
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the main reason is to have a business incorporated within the EU if that's relevant for the person. Delaware is great, and UK filled this role until Brexit but after that if you needed an EU incorporated company it was a massive pain basically everywhere except Estonia which was relatively cheap and everyone in the industry speaks English

Your username is cool

Ha, thank you!

Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

#49
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are you a russian speaking estonian? or russian citizen?

Russian citizen living abroad

For better or worse, our world has the concept of "citizenship". It is not ideal, but it is what we have settled on. You reap the benefits of your passport (citizenship), but you also bear responsibilities. It is possible to switch nationalities, and I would heartily encourage anyone whose conscience has trouble accepting what their country does to do so.

Re: Ask HN: What surprised you about Estonia e-Residency and running an Estonian OÜ?

#50
post #11

Any 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

Why LLP over Ltd?
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