An Estonian OÜ is an EU company you run online. It invoices European clients, can get an EU VAT number and pays Estonian corporate tax only when profit is paid out. We keep its books in Estonia and explain every step in Ukrainian.
The eight things Ukrainian founders most often bring to us — and what an EU company does about each.
What an OÜ givesAn EU company can apply to European payment gateways and open an account with an EMI. Each provider checks its clients itself, so we help you choose a bank or EMI that fits your business.
Who helpsBookkeeping and statements
What an OÜ givesUnder Ukraine’s currency law an OÜ is a non-resident, even when you own it, so the company’s settlements with clients outside Ukraine, in any currency, are not Ukrainian currency transactions. Your own transactions as a Ukrainian resident stay under the National Bank’s rules.
Who helpsCompliance advice
What an OÜ givesYour invoice comes from an EU supplier — a company in the Estonian register. Once the OÜ is registered for VAT, a client can check its number in VIES.
Who helpsBookkeeping and the annual report
What an OÜ givesThe OÜ registers for VAT in Estonia: compulsory once its taxable turnover in Estonia passes €40,000 (services to businesses abroad mostly don’t count towards it), or earlier, by choice, once the company is in business. Services to EU businesses go under the reverse charge; goods shipped to a VAT-registered business in another EU country, with its VAT number on the invoice, at 0% as an intra-EU supply.
Who helpsVAT registration, KMD and KMD INF
What an OÜ givesProfit the company keeps is taxed at 0% in Estonia. Tax — 22% of the gross — comes only when profit is paid out.
Who helpsDividends and the TSD return
What an OÜ givesThe company is run fully online: e-Residency to log in and sign, DigiDoc for documents, e-MTA for the tax office. The annual report is filed through the electronic register.
Who helpsRemote accounting
What an OÜ givesTo import or export goods the company needs an EORI number, applied for in e-MTA. Stock in an Amazon FBA warehouse in another EU country can mean registering for VAT there too.
Who helpsE-commerce: OSS, IOSS, EORI
What an OÜ givesAn EU company under Estonian law. Rates, deadlines and rules are public — and every tax rate, threshold and deadline on this site comes from an official source, with the date we checked it.
Who helpsCompliance advice
Estonia taxes the company and any board fee; Ukraine taxes you as its tax resident — on dividends, and it may tax a board fee too.
Your OÜ 0% / 22%
An Estonian company, because it was founded under Estonian law. Profit kept in — no tax; paid out — 22% of the gross.
A board fee
Payroll, taxed in Estonia wherever you live.
Us
The OÜ’s books, returns and annual report — on time and explained in Ukrainian, with the year closed in time for your Ukrainian declaration when the year’s documents reach us early.
dividend / salary
You 9% + 5% on dividends
A dividend from the OÜ goes in your annual declaration: personal income tax and military levy. Residency isn’t only your address — your permanent home and the centre of your vital interests count.
CFC > 50%
An OÜ you own more than 50% of — or more than 10% when Ukrainian residents together hold 50% or more — is your controlled foreign company: a notice, then a report every year (the steps below).
You become an Estonian tax resident only if you live there or stay 183 days in 12 months. e-Residency doesn’t change that.
Two layers, each worked out on its own base. Estonia taxes the profit the company pays out; Ukraine taxes the dividend that reaches you.
Estonia: on the profit the OÜ pays out
Ukraine: on the dividend you receive
The percentages don’t add up: the second layer is taken from what is left after the first. Whether the Estonian tax reduces the Ukrainian one depends on your case — a question for a consultation.
A Ukrainian tax resident who owns more than 50% of an OÜ — or more than 10% when Ukrainian residents together hold 50% or more — is its controlling person. Here is what follows: who does what, and by when.
From that day you control a foreign company.
You
Within 60 days
That you have become a controlling person.
You or your Ukrainian accountant
Every year
With your annual declaration. While the total income of all your CFCs stays within €2,000,000, the OÜ’s profit isn’t taxed in Ukraine — but the report is filed all the same, stating the exemption.
You
The company’s annual report, whose copies go with the CFC report — prepared in time for your declaration when the year’s documents reach us early; otherwise you file a shortened CFC report and the full one later.
Numerra
We take on the Estonian side in full — and tell you what your Ukrainian accountant needs from it.
A company with a handful of invoices a month usually fits Confident starter: full bookkeeping, VAT and monthly filings, with a named accountant. More documents or staff? We’ll name the right plan before you pay anything.
Prices are in euro, before VAT. Whether VAT is added depends on our VAT status and where your company is established — your quote shows it before you sign.
A young OÜ finding its feet
€75 /month
Reviews our clients left on Fiverr, shown word for word.
Our tag: Annual report
EN
UAI was overwhelmed with the annual report of my Estonian company and Olena did it competently and patiently. Many thanks once again.
Yes. An EU company invoices its clients and is paid into an account with a bank or an EMI. Which provider takes you on is the provider’s decision: e-Residency doesn’t guarantee an account. We’ll help you choose a bank or EMI for your business and the country you live in — ideally before your first invoice.
Usually, yes — if you’re a Ukrainian tax resident and own more than 50% of it, or more than 10% when Ukrainian residents together hold 50% or more, or control it in practice. Then you notify the tax office and file a CFC report every year with your declaration, even when no tax is due. Details in CFC rules and dividends from an Estonian OÜ (in Ukrainian).
Two layers. In Estonia the company pays 22% of the gross amount when it pays out, and Estonia withholds nothing more from you as a person. In Ukraine, a tax resident pays 9% personal income tax and 5% military levy on it. The dividend tax calculator works out the Estonian part.
We do the Estonian side; the Ukrainian side is yours. The CFC report and the notice are Ukrainian documents, filed by you or your Ukrainian accountant. We keep the OÜ’s books and prepare its annual report, whose financial statements go with your CFC report. Tell us when your Ukrainian accountant needs them, and we’ll close the year in time.
Then Ukraine may see it as its own taxpayer. A company managed mainly from Ukraine — decisions made and daily business run there — can become a Ukrainian corporate taxpayer; a tax treaty can settle it the other way. Read e-Residency and Ukraine (in Ukrainian) before you plan around the Estonian model.
No. e-Residency lets you set up and run an Estonian company online and sign its documents digitally. It doesn’t make you an Estonian tax resident, doesn’t end your Ukrainian tax residency and gives no right to live in or enter Estonia. What e-Residency does and doesn’t do.
We’ll tell you what changes for you in Ukraine, what is worth setting up in Estonia, and what a year of accounting costs. No commitment.
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