Estonia Company Cost in 2026: The Honest Invoice

The number you will see everywhere is €265. It is real, it is the state fee for registering an Estonian OÜ online, and it is nowhere near what you will actually spend. For a non-resident founder running an active company, the realistic first year lands between €1,300 and €2,000, and most of that money never goes to the Estonian state.

That gap is not a scam. Estonia genuinely has no franchise tax, no minimum corporate tax, and an annual report you can file yourself for free. The gap exists because a non-resident needs services a local founder does not: a legal address, a contact person, and accounting. This guide itemizes all of it, including the numbers that changed recently and the one everybody forgets, the cost of leaving.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. State fees and tax rates are official as of July 2026; all service prices below are market estimates that vary by provider. Confirm current figures with eesti.ee, e-resident.gov.ee or a qualified advisor before you rely on them.

The headline: three founders, three bills

• An Estonian resident who self-files: about €265 in year one, then close to zero in mandatory costs.
• A non-resident with a dormant or barely active OÜ: roughly €615-815 in year one (card, state fee, address and contact person), then €300-500 per year.
• A non-resident running an active company: roughly €1,300-2,000 in year one and €1,200-4,500 per year after that, because accounting is where the money goes.

State fee only€265

Non-resident, dormant, DIY€615-815

Non-resident, active, all-in year 1€1,300-2,000

One-time formation costs

Two details in this table deserve a closer look.

First, the counterintuitive one: registering through a notary carries a lower state fee than registering online. €200 versus €265, confirmed by the Estonian Chamber of Commerce.

The catch is everything around the state fee. The notary route means notary charges, usually a power of attorney, apostilles and translations, and in practice it lands at €1,400-1,800 all-in through the service providers who arrange it. It exists for founders who cannot get e-Residency, not for founders trying to save €65. Both routes, step by step, are covered in our guide to registering a company in Estonia.

Second, the €0.01 share capital is real but mostly theoretical. Banks, payment providers and counterparties read a one-cent capital as a red flag, which is why €1,000-2,500 remains the sensible range. The reasoning, and when an OÜ is the right entity at all, is in our Estonian company types guide.

One practical note on the e-Residency card: the €150 state fee is the official figure, and some pickup locations add a handling fee on top. Check the conditions for your chosen pickup point when you apply. The card has no annual fee; renewal comes only when it expires after five years.

What you pay every year: three different kinds of "mandatory"

This is where Estonia's cost structure is genuinely unusual, and where most cost pages blur three categories that deserve to be separated.

Required by law

• State recurring fees: €0. There is no franchise tax, no minimum tax and no annual registry fee. Estonia charges you nothing for existing.
• Annual report: mandatory, but free to self-file. Every OÜ must file an annual report even with zero activity. Filing through the e-Business Register costs nothing, and self-service tools that prepare a dormant or simple report exist for around €29. Skipping it is not an option; persistent non-filing leads to compulsory deletion from the register.
• Contact person: mandatory only if your company's registered address is outside Estonia, which in practice covers essentially every non-resident founder. This is the one legal obligation that forces most e-residents into a paid service.

Required in practice

• Legal address plus contact person: €200-400 per year at typical market rates. Budget providers start around €18-29 per month; established providers charge €320-520 per year. This is the floor of your recurring bill.
• Accounting, from the moment you have activity. Estonian bookkeeping rules and, above €40,000 of Estonian-taxable turnover, VAT registration make DIY accounting unrealistic for most active companies. An independent accountant runs €50-100 per month; having your annual report prepared professionally costs €250-1,000.

Sold as mandatory

• Full-service subscriptions from day one. Platforms bundle address, contact person and accounting at €59-259 per month plus VAT (Xolo Leap's published tiers) or price per invoice volume from about €79 per month, climbing as your document count grows (Companio's model). These are legitimate services, but a pre-revenue company does not need a €99-per-month plan.
• The starter-tier trap. Entry plans are priced to appear in comparison tables. Xolo's €59 Starter tier caps your transaction volume; cross the cap and you are on €99-139 plus VAT. When you compare providers, price your realistic monthly volume in year two, not the teaser.
• Banking costs are a separate topic entirely, and the "you need an Estonian bank" claim is itself a myth; the options and real fees are in our business banking guide for e-residents.

• e-Residency application and state fee~€150
• Company registration state fee€265
• Legal address, contact person and accounting~€900

The invoice: year 1 vs year 2 onward

Two observations. First, unlike most jurisdictions, the state disappears from your invoice after year one. Everything recurring is a service, which means everything recurring is negotiable and shoppable. Second, the bare survival cost of an Estonian OÜ, address plus contact person plus a self-filed report, is €300-500 per year, one of the lowest holding costs in Europe. The number quoted in ads and the number on your bank statement differ because of accounting, not because of Estonia.

State fees€0

Legal address + contact person€200-400

Annual report€0 self-filed to €1,000

Accounting€0-3,100

Prices that changed recently

The single biggest problem with the figures in circulation is that they are stale. As of July 2026, here is what changed and when:

• State registration fee: €190 → €265 on January 1, 2024. A large share of guides still shows €190.
• e-Residency card: €100-120 → €150 flat on January 1, 2025, and already legislated to rise to €165 on January 1, 2027.

Corporate income tax on distributions: still 22/78, and this one has a story. The 14/86 reduced rate was abolished on January 1, 2025. A defence tax that would have taxed retained profits was repealed on June 19, 2025 before ever taking effect. A voted increase to 24/76 for 2026 was then cancelled by the Riigikogu in December 2025. Pages announcing "24% from 2026" are describing a law that no longer exists. The full mechanics are in our guide to Estonian taxes for non-residents.

• VAT: 22% → 24% on July 1, 2025, with the registration threshold at €40,000.
• Delaware LLC annual tax: $300 → $400 under House Bill 400, effective for tax year 2026, first $400 payment due June 1, 2027.
• UK confirmation statement: £34 → £50 in February 2026.

Jan 2024State registration fee goes €190 to €265

Jan 2025e-Residency card goes to €150 flat; the 14/86 reduced rate is abolished

Jun 2025Defence tax on retained profits, repealed before taking effect

Jul 2025VAT goes 22% to 24%, threshold at €40,000

Dec 2025Voted rise to 24/76, cancelled by the Riigikogu; 22/78 stays

Jan 2027e-Residency card already legislated to rise to €165

1. Jan 2024State registration fee goes €190 to €265
2. Jan 2025e-Residency card goes to €150 flat; the 14/86 reduced rate is abolished
3. Jun 2025Defence tax on retained profits, repealed before taking effect
4. Jul 2025VAT goes 22% to 24%, threshold at €40,000
5. Dec 2025Voted rise to 24/76, cancelled by the Riigikogu; 22/78 stays
6. Jan 2027e-Residency card already legislated to rise to €165

Estonia vs Delaware LLC vs UK Ltd: the recurring-cost truth

Non-resident founders rarely compare Estonian entity types; they compare jurisdictions. Here is the state-cost comparison, with the Delaware change stated precisely because most of the web currently gets it wrong.

On raw state fees over five years, Estonia costs roughly a sixth of Delaware. The caveat is that state fees are the smallest part of every column: once you add the mandatory services and accounting each jurisdiction demands of a non-resident, all three land in the same four-digit annual territory. What actually separates them is the tax model and where you can bank, not the registry invoice. For the full picture of what an Estonian structure costs and includes, see the Estonia formation package.

The cost of leaving, which nobody puts on the invoice

Every cost page prices the entrance. Here is the exit, priced, because it belongs in your decision.

Voluntary liquidation of an OÜ costs about €36 in state fees for the dissolution and deletion entries, plus small notarial and certification costs of €15-30, plus €350-1,350 if a service provider handles the process, which most non-residents need. It takes four to eight months, and the floor is hard: Estonian law imposes a three-month creditor notification period that cannot be shortened. Companies with messy books or tax arrears take longer.

The dormant alternative is often the rational first move. Keeping a clean OÜ dormant costs €200-400 per year for the address and contact person plus a free self-filed annual report. If there is a realistic chance you will restart within a year or two, dormancy is cheaper than liquidating and re-forming. If there is not, liquidate properly; abandoning the company and letting the registry delete it for non-filing can expose the board member personally and is not a clean exit.