Since I wrote my first article on the Estonian E-residency, this is a question I have got from time to time from readers: How do I pay the share capital and get it registered in the business registry?
There are some specific requirements such as getting a digitally signed confirmation written in Estonian by your banking provider, which you will upload to the business registry.
That’s not a problem when you use an Estonian bank, or an e-money provider that already “supports” e-residents (such as Holvi).
But many people then assumed that Estonian companies could not use other banking or e-money providers (such as LeuPay or TransferWise Borderless), which is not true.
The Estonian E-residency team published a really good article on Medium last month explaining the situation in great detail. I recommend reading the whole article if you’re running or are thinking about setting up an Estonian company, but here are some key takeaways:
- Payment of the share capital can be deferred for up to 10 years, meaning you in theory can use whatever banking partner you want for the first ten years, and then get the share capital sorted—at that point this is likely to be a non-issue.
- Although it could need to pay it sooner if you want to take dividends.
- If you are using a foreign bank and want to get the share capital sorted right away, a service provider might be able to act as an intermediary between your financial partner and the Estonian business registry. 1office is mentioned as an option.
