Does anyone here any experience running an Estonian company from India? Any links to good tax lawyers?
Estonia is running its country like a tech company
61–70 of 203 posts
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#62No opinion on Estonia and its e-government, but running a country like a tech company sounds like a plot of a comedy set in a dystopia. I certainly hope that Estonia is ran better than most tech company Tech companies have many problems that I don't want see in a Government: - Security breaches (and just like every other tech company Bulgaria recently had a dump of the personal data of 5 million citizens) - Privacy i…
Most countries are ran far worse than a company. If citizens had the option to freely jump between countries, most of them would go bankrupt, that's why they rely on coercion. Very few countries are ran efficiently and they re typically very small like Singapore.
Usually only the country one would move to is restricting movement. So what the hell are you talking about?
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you/people internal to your company set that up or did you use some agency that specialises in incorporating businesses in Estonia?
I'd say Estonia is one of the few places such companies are not required for setting up, having an accountant to consult before and after is sensible however.
Highly recommend speaking with an accountant. E-Residency has some service providers they vetted here https://e-resident.gov.ee/marketplace/service-providers/
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#64If you're thinking about starting a company in Estonia under the "e-residency" program, you should know that Estonian banks have recently become very skeptical about opening bank accounts for foreigners. It's not enough that you have an Estonian corporation, you'll probably be expected to demonstrate that your business has actual ties to Estonia. Finnish entrepreneurs are being denied bank accounts despite the close…
Banks are extremely nonfunctional in Baltic countries probably because of how little people live there. I think there is a large potential for good international banks.
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
See also, Erdogan on WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/turkey-is-stepping-up-where-oth...
Yep, though I wouldn't personally put the Wall Street Journal on the same level as qz. That they (WSJ) published Erdogan's piece is (to me) perplexing, but for completely different reasons. This one on qz.com seems, at least to me, nothing different from the several "puff" articles we have read in the last few years about the digital "revolution" in Estonia (and e-residency, etc.), but till now they were all or almos…
Love the gnome business plan, I'm a huge South Park fan.
But I do think there is real value in it for some people (especially digital nomads) but things like e-Residency running a company remotely definitely aren't going to benefit everyone, building a solution that solves every person's problem is a crazy undertaking
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#66Interesting! to see how to run money laundry like a tech company.
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/10/17/a...
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Germany and Estonia have two completely opposing views when it comes to personal information, and the Estonian way is the way to success. OTOH, the issue with USA is the conflict of interest between the public and private sector. Turbotax is a prime example.
As a German, I don't think the issue is with our handling of personal data. The real issue is Kleinstaaterei, a not-quite-translatable word that describes every small administrative entity insisting on doing its own thing and failing to see the bigger picture. What today is Germany used to be about 100 separate nations until 1871, and a still somewhat loose federation until 1918. I think the mentality from that time…
I've heard that Germans are very skeptical about sharing data and have lots of fears about privacy.
Here in Estonia our government systems work efficiently because our data is shared between government departments and ministries in a safe way. There is only one place that stores the addresses of people, there is only one place that has knows about the cars or properties I own and so on. There is a law against asking people who interact with the state for data that it already has.
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you be as surprised if given equivalent technological achievements the mayor of, say, Oklahoma City or Richmond VA, did some horn tooting on qz.com to try to drum up outside investment and interest? Estonia’s population is between that of those two modestly sized metros.
I don't know, by those metrics, the Mayor of - say - Paris or London has much more relevance than - still say - the King and Prime Minister of Sweden or of Norway. Or the Mayor of Rome more or less the same relevance as the President of Ireland. Maybe I am too old fashioned, but I see a president of an independent country, small as it might be, as having a different, higher status than a mayor.
I definitely think there is a different level between the president or PM of an independent country to a Mayor of even a much larger city. However, there's also a difference (depending on the country) of the role of President vs. PM vs. Monarch and whether their duties are more promotional/ceremonial versus legislative
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#69I've run and invested in businesses in multiple countries (Spain, Germany, US, UAE, Sri Lanka). One of them (Mobile Jazz - a fully remote company) we've moved to Estonia in 2016. One of the best business decisions we've made admin-wise. While there are for sure better alternatives when it comes to "saving on taxes" (I'd say Estonia is in the European average with 20% corporate tax and an interesting taxation model on…
It barely has a million people. You have to compare it with other countries of similar size and population. Comparing it to Spain, Germany, US, UAE, Sri Lanka is like comparing mice to dogs, cows, elephants and blue whales.
That said, ofcourse there are things that can be learnt and applied to similar sized towns, cities, states etc that want these features.
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#70Does anyone here any experience running an Estonian company from India? Any links to good tax lawyers?
Not directly but I would recommend checking out the e-Residency marketplace where they have vetted service providers (1Office is good) and asking in the E-Residents FB group
https://e-resident.gov.ee/marketplace/service-providers/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/eResidents/