Many people think that running an Estonian company means constant reporting. In fact there are few obligations. Most of them are conditional: if you did nothing, you do not have to file anything either. Below are the three dates that the whole thing turns on.
The 20th of the month: the VAT return
This concerns only companies registered for VAT. If your company is not registered for VAT, then this date does not exist for you.
If the company is registered, the VAT return is filed with the Estonian Tax and Customs Board by the 20th of each month for the month before.
The 10th of the month: a declaration to the Estonian Tax and Customs Board
This date only comes up if the company made a payment: paid a salary, a board member's fee or a dividend, or gave a fringe benefit. In such a month a declaration for the month before (widely known as the TSD) is filed by the 10th at the latest.
If you paid nobody anything, then there is nothing to file that month either.
Six months after the end of the financial year: the annual report
This is the most important date, and the one that is forgotten most often. The annual report is filed with the Commercial Register within six months after the end of the financial year. For most companies the financial year is the same as the calendar year. The deadline is then 30 June.
The report has to be filed by every company, including one that was not active during the year. This is the obligation that foreign owners forget most often.
The wording of the law is short:
Commercial Code § 179 (4) (first sentence): “The management board shall submit the approved annual report, together with the proposal for the distribution of profit or the covering of loss, the distribution of sales revenue and the sworn auditor's report if auditing is mandatory, to the Commercial Register within six months of the end of the financial year.”
(Riigi Teataja, § 179)
What happens if the report is not filed
The register may impose a fine on the company. The fine may be imposed again and again until the report is filed, and it may also be done without any warning beforehand.
Deletion is a separate risk. The register sends a deletion warning with a deadline. A company may be deleted from the register when the report is still not filed and at least three months have passed since the date on which the report was due.
None of these consequences happens overnight. All of them can still be avoided: a report filed on time ends the whole chain.
Once a year: keep the company alive
There is no date for this, but set yourself a reminder once a year, in January for example. Check that the contact person and the address are still valid. Renew the e-resident card before it expires. If there is no contact person any more, official letters go unread and problems pile up unnoticed.
In summary
Most companies owe nothing month by month. The monthly obligations are conditional. Suppose a company is not active, or it only pays dividends and is not registered for VAT. Then it does not have to file anything month by month, only one report a year.
This article was prepared with the help of artificial intelligence.