e-Residency and your Estonian company: what it gives, the legal address and the contact person

e-Residency is a state-issued digital identity for foreigners. It lets a founder run an Estonian company online from anywhere, but it is not a residence permit, a visa or a tax status. This guide covers what it does, the company's legal address and contact person, how official documents reach the company, and what to check in a service provider.

In short

• e-Residency gives a qualified electronic signature and online access. It gives no right to live or work in Estonia and no tax residency.
• If the card expires, the company is not affected, but the holder can no longer sign digitally with it.
• An OÜ needs a contact person only when its address in the Business Register is abroad, and only a listed professional may act as one.
• The company e-mail address in the register is a service address: a court document sent there is deemed served after five working days.
• An address or contact person provider needs a licence, and has no right to represent the company.
• The OÜ is an Estonian tax resident. The owner abroad is not, and the country where he manages it may also tax the company.

What e-Residency gives and what it does not

The e-Resident's digital ID is a digital document for a foreigner without an Estonian ID card or residence permit card, issued to allow the use of e-services (Identity Documents Act § 20⁵). It is used only electronically, to prove identity online (§ 3(3)), and is valid for up to five years (§ 20³).

What it enables:

• A qualified electronic signature (Electronic Identification and Trust Services Act § 24). It has the effect of a handwritten signature and is recognised as qualified in every EU state (eIDAS art 25(2)).
• Business Register filings. Register applications must be notarised or digitally signed (Commercial Register Act § 40(1)). So an e-Resident can found an OÜ online, change the board or the address, and file the annual report, without a notary.
• Access to e-MTA for tax returns, and to other e-services, subject to each provider's rules. See e-Residency's guide to starting a company.

What it does not give:

• No guaranteed service. Any service provider, banks included, may refuse or restrict service to an e-Resident, ask for more documents, or require a personal visit (Identity Documents Act § 20¹⁰). A bank account is never guaranteed.
• No right to stay. A non-EU citizen needs a visa, a visa-free right or a residence permit to enter and stay (Aliens Act § 43). A foreigner on any lawful temporary stay may manage an Estonian company during that stay (§ 105(3)). Living in Estonia needs a residence permit (§ 117, § 118).
• No tax residency. That follows the Income Tax Act, not e-Residency (see e-Residency and tax residency).

The application fee is 150 euros (State Fees Act § 272), and the ID is collected in person (Identity Documents Act § 20¹²).

When the card expires or is revoked

The company is not affected. It keeps existing, the owner stays a shareholder, and the board member stays in the register. What stops is the person's ability to log in and sign with the card.

• The certificates are valid as long as the document, at most five years (Identity Documents Act § 20², § 20³). Renewal is a new application with the full fee, so apply early.
• The Police and Border Guard Board may revoke the ID, for example for use against its purpose, and a revoked document is never restored (§ 20⁶, § 13).

Until a new card arrives, the person signs in another qualified way, or on paper before a notary (abroad, with an apostille or legalisation) (Commercial Register Act § 40(1)). If no board member can act, the shareholders can appoint another one; the shareholder decision itself must then be digitally signed or notarised (Commercial Code § 184).

Plan for continuity: give an accountant his own e-MTA access before the card lapses, and keep a second signer. Missing the annual report deadline because nobody can sign can lead to a fine and deletion from the register (Commercial Register Act § 57, § 61). The renewal process is described by e-Residency.

The contact person

A contact person is mandatory when the company's address in the Business Register is abroad (Commercial Register Act § 24(2)). Since 01.02.2023 the trigger is the company's own address, not where the board members live. An OÜ with an Estonian address and a board abroad needs no contact person. Check an older company's card: where it showed only the board's address, that address became the company's address under the 2023 transition rule (Commercial Register Act § 68(2)-(3)), so a board address abroad may now be the company's address and call for a contact person.

In the mandatory case only these may act (§ 24(4)):

• a notary;
• an attorney (advokaat) or an attorney's office;
• a sworn auditor or an audit firm;
• a tax representative of a non-resident;
• a trust and company service provider (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act § 8), which in most cases needs a licence of the Financial Intelligence Unit (§ 70).

A friend or a relative cannot be the mandatory contact person.

The filing gives the contact person's name and code, an Estonian address and an e-mail address for service, the person's signed consent, and the end date of the service (Commercial Register Act § 24(5)-(6)). Delivery to the contact person counts as delivery to the company (§ 24(7)). The contact person has no power to manage or sign for the company.

A company with a foreign address and no contact person can be dissolved or deleted from the register after a deadline (§ 58, § 62). Entering a new contact person costs a 25 euro state fee (State Fees Act § 63).

A board member needs no Estonian residence at all (Commercial Code § 180), and a liquidator may also live abroad (§ 206).

The legal address

The seat (asukoht) of an OÜ is always in Estonia, as fixed in its articles (General Part of the Civil Code Act § 29). The address on the registry card can be:

• in Estonia: the owner's office or home, or a legal address service. No contact person is needed;
• abroad: allowed, but a qualified contact person is then mandatory, and the contact person's Estonian address is treated as the company's address for service (Commercial Register Act § 24(7)).

A virtual office is lawful if it is a real address where mail is received. Its provider is a trust and company service provider and needs a licence of the Financial Intelligence Unit, unless an exemption applies, for example a service within the same group (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act § 8, § 70). Check the licence in the Register of Economic Activities.

What the address means in practice:

• The Tax and Customs Board sends paper documents there; a simple letter is deemed served five days after dispatch in Estonia (Taxation Act § 53¹).
• If letters return or e-mails bounce, the registrar can publish a note on contact difficulties, which banks and partners see (Commercial Register Act § 55).
• A move within the same municipality is free. A move to another municipality changes the seat, which is in the articles: it needs a shareholder resolution and costs 25 euros (Commercial Code § 175; State Fees Act § 23, § 63).

An address alone proves no business in Estonia. To register for VAT, the company must show that it carries on or starts business in Estonia (VAT Act § 20(4¹)).

When the provider ends the service

• The contact person term. A contact person is registered with an end date, and the data drop out of the register automatically on that date (Commercial Register Act § 24(6), § 54). Extend it before the end date. Once it has lapsed, a new entry needs a fresh consent and the 25 euro fee.
• The address. An address provider cannot change the company's address itself; the board files the new address.
• The gap. A company with a foreign address and no contact person gets a deletion warning with a deadline (§ 62).

Diarise the end date, agree a notice period and a mail handover, and file the new address or contact person before the old one ends.

The company e-mail and service of documents

Every company must have an e-mail address on its registry card (Commercial Register Act § 12; Commercial Code § 145). Courts, including the registry department, use it to serve documents (Code of Civil Procedure § 311¹):

1. The court uploads the document to the e-File system and sends a notice to the registered e-mail.
2. The document is served when someone opens it in the system.
3. If that is not possible, the court sends the document to the registry card e-mail, and it is deemed served five working days after sending, with no confirmation needed.

The Tax and Customs Board serves through e-MTA when the company uses it and gave an e-mail or phone number. A document not opened within five working days is also sent by post (Taxation Act § 54).

An unread mailbox stops no time limit. A payment order proposal must be answered within 15 days of service (30 days if served abroad), otherwise the court issues a payment order that is enforceable at once (Code of Civil Procedure § 485, § 489). A tax decision can be challenged by an objection within 30 days, but the objection does not suspend it, so the tax is still due on the payment date. Once that date has passed, the Board may enforce after an order to pay (Taxation Act § 128, § 138, § 146).

Use a role address, for example legal@, forwarded to at least two people. Changing the e-mail address in the register is free (State Fees Act § 23).

Choosing a service provider

Before you sign:

1. Licence. Address and contact person services are trust and company services and need a licence of the Financial Intelligence Unit, unless an exemption applies (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act § 8, § 70). A mandatory contact person must also be one of the persons listed in the Commercial Register Act.
2. Scope. Address only, or address and contact person; how fast mail is forwarded; whether court and tax notices are watched.
3. Term and exit. The registered contact person term should match the contract. Agree a notice period and who files the change.
4. Price. The annual fee, and which state fees are passed on.

Who stays in control:

• The company is represented by its board members (Commercial Code § 180, § 181). A provider is not an organ of the company.
• The bank account is operated by the persons the board authorises with the bank. Give a provider no signing rights unless you mean to.
• A provider may prepare register filings, but a board member signs them. A power of attorney to sign must itself be notarised or digitally signed (Commercial Register Act § 40).
• The accounting records belong to the company, which keeps them for seven years (Accounting Act § 12). Put machine-readable exports in the contract.

e-Residency and tax residency

e-Residency does not make the owner tax resident in Estonia. A person is resident only if his place of residence is in Estonia, or he stays in Estonia at least 183 days in 12 consecutive months (Income Tax Act § 6(1)). An e-Resident abroad is a non-resident, taxed in Estonia only on Estonian-source income (§ 6(3)). The Tax and Customs Board says the same.

What stays taxable in Estonia for a non-resident owner:

• A board member fee paid by the Estonian company is Estonian-source income wherever the work is done (Income Tax Act § 29). The company withholds 22 percent income tax (Income Tax Act § 40, § 43) and pays 33 percent social tax on it (Social Tax Act § 2(1)), unless the member proves coverage by another state's social security, for example with an A1 certificate (Regulation (EC) No 883/2004, art 11-13; Social Tax Act § 3).
• Dividends. The company pays the corporate income tax on distribution (Income Tax Act § 50(1)); no further Estonian tax is withheld on an ordinary dividend to an individual. The owner's home country usually taxes it.

The company. An OÜ founded under Estonian law is an Estonian tax resident (Income Tax Act § 6(2)). But when its only director works from another country, that country may treat the company as having a permanent establishment or its place of management there, and tax its profits. That depends on the other country's law and on the tax treaty, which prevails over the Estonian Act (§ 6(5)). This is the main tax risk of a one-person e-Resident company. See founder residency, permanent establishment and CFC rules.

General information, not advice for your situation. The law as in force on 30.09.2026.