edwin01

> I can pull out if needed

According eesti.ee, it will take around six months to close limited liability company in Estonia. So yes, technically you can pull out but if it's anything like other more obscure legal procedures in Estonia, good luck. Conveniently this is not mentioned anywhere in the nice looking promo sites either ;)

Solid advice. I was stupid enough to follow the process estonian gov had laid out and it really didn't make this distinction at any point so I registered our full capital as share capital.

I can also chime in that avoid Swedbank like plague. I tried them first but after submitting them with 6 months of personal bank statements and getting back an offer for CC with 300€ credit limit I went straigth to LHV which has been fantastic. Let's just say that CC limit wasn't 300€... I'm considering using LHV for other projects as well because they have APIs, everything works and they even work with cryptocurrency companies for what it's worth.

This is a good point. However for me the annoyance is not about reporting the decrease, it's the fact that if capital drops below 50%, government is now in control whether they exercise that control or not. I would understand something like 10% but 50% is just ridiculous to me.

I wish they would first translate all the necessary documents to run a business in Estonia to english, and after succeeding in that, then jump into creating new financial instrument for the new brave digital world.

Yes. If your balance at the end of the year isn't half of your starting capital, you need to tell estonian government officials how you are planning to recover from this horrible failure. I didn't know this on my first year and we just made a small investment at the end of the year that made the balance to drop at horrific 40% level which triggered alarms in the government. If you fail to satisfy them with your plan, (if I understood right estonian-only materials), they can declare your company bankrupt. I know it sounds ridiculous but welcome to Estonia I guess. Though I do doubt that the officials would close your business unless you actually go bankrupt but it's still a hassle and feels very controlling to explain your business to a government at this level.

I incorporated in Estonia few years ago because of what their promo materials say. It’s a total shitshow unfortunately and while it’s true that you can do everything online, it’s not what you think. All user interfaces are straight from the 90s, only the most basic forms are in english and they want to know everything about your business while setting ridiculous limits. For example, you need to have half of your capital available always. If you end the year even with 49% of your capital, you have to submit a report how you are planning to fix the situation. This is highly limiting requirement for any startup. When you need to do anything else than submit the most basic forms, you have to fill in forms that are available only in estonian. If you need help, good luck finding a person who can serve you in english. Don’t get me wrong, estonian people are very nice and will try to help you but the language barrier is very awkward to deal with.

If you plan to incorporate in Estonia, make sure you hire a local accountant because you really can’t decipher their accounting requirements yourself, put the lowest amount of capital required in (2500€) and mentally prepare for overall frustrating experience.

I applaud Estonia for all the efforts they have put into rising from the ashes of russian control but if I knew back then what I know now and had to make a choice now where to incorporate, I would skip Estonia.