Do you know a low fees broker/platform to buy stock/index funds as an Estonian company?
I’m aware of Degiro, which is competitive, but it seems they don’t accept customers who run businesses in Estonia yet. Interactive Brokers is another option.
Do you have any experience investment profits from an Estonian company into stock?
I’m pretty interested in knowing more about it.
Thank you!
I do this using IB. It’s the best option I’ve found for someone who buys reasonably often. The only thing to look out for is the $10 monthly minimum fee if you have less than $100,000 invested with them.
Still it beats €11 + 0.3%/trade + minimum €2.4/mo custodian fee with LHV unless you only invest a small amount once or twice a year.
MeDirect in Malta might be another option for low volume/frequency, but I haven’t tried setting up an account for an Estonian company with them.
If anyone has other recommendations I’d love to learn about them.
Thanks! I will possibly try IB. LHV is far from being cheap, also I don’t like to deal with old-school banks. For me are dead, and hopefully for the rest of the world too in the upcoming years.
Tom!
I’d like to know, in general terms, how do you manage funding and profits to the Estonian company.
I’m thinking of changing my trading accounts (FxPro and these days Admiral because of much lower spreads).
I’m thinking of doing all the estonian things, open a company there and then do trading from that company. As far as I can see, you’re doing business with a third party, a broker, so you’ll only pay for what you pay yourself to live, right? Personal salary or company profits?
Thanks for what you can add and/or say.
I use Transferwise for USD or EUR transfers. I’m finally using IB and it’s pretty easy to fund the account, although the onboarding process for IB is long and complex if you do it yourself as a non-legal expert.
Mine took near a month after lots of documents filled and questions asked, but when finally got access and start operating everything is smooth.
I can only tell from my experience: running a company in Estonia is one of the best strategic business decisions I made in a long time. It’s a bureaucracy-less paradise. I had a fully operating company in one working day + another day to get EU VAT ID, all in just one hour of my time, few web forms filled and two emails sent.
In other countries like Italy or Spain, but possibly many others in EU, getting a company is far harder, time-consuming and notably more expensive. I have paid 275€ in total to start the company + one month of accounting/legal services included. For the VAT ID thing I know people in Spain waiting for 1+ year to obtain it. Totally unacceptable.
Their tax laws are also quite interesting for businesses and profits reinvestment. I personally use the company as an investment vehicle, not only for the businesses I run but also for stocks for the long-term run. It’s very to capitalize and reinvest funds within the company as you can displace the tax burden until you eventually want to distribute dividends, but that’s completely up to you.
There are some other stuff you need to sort out before you run a company in Estonia if you live in the EU, especially in a high-tax countries (well, all EU is pretty much about high taxes lol). Things like CFC rules need to be studied in detail according to your case if you have an important substance in another country, like your home one. Ideally, if you live abroad, soft of a digital nomad, or live without any solid dependency on any specific country, Estonia is definitively is a great place to run a company and operate your finances.
Thanks, A LOT, for your answer.
I’m currently living in Argentina, but thinking of moving to Spain (I know…) but wirh wife and 4 small kids, we can’t move around and language is a thing.
It’ll not be soon, but I’d like to set up as much as I can before moving.
Thanks, again.
@tab thanks for the great write up. what expenses have you encountered in relation to using the company for “stock trading”? Besides the money to be paid to IB, are there any accounting procedures, fees that need to be paid for monthly?
My case is I want the Estonia company to hold my index funds for the long term, however if need be, I want to get a salary from it - have you had a chance to withdraw some money, and if so how easy was that process, in terms of tax and eventually accessing the funds?
Thanks