4 ms·

(Posted under a throwaway account). My use case: as a Russian citizen living in Russia but planning to release an app, I'd much rather prefer doing it via an E

(Posted under a throwaway account). My use case: as a Russian citizen living in Russia but planning to release an app, I'd much rather prefer doing it via an EU company than via a Russian company. First, there's a lot of nasty stuff happens to business owners who don't have proper "protection" (their businesses get "transferred" to the right people and they themselves go to jail on phony charges for not wanting to sell their business for peanuts). Second, the situation in Russia will definitely get worse, and when that happens, the problem I described above will also get worse. I just don't want to expose a business generating revenue in USD in Russia. And if it gets exposed (which it will, due to the automatic information exchanges between jurisdictions), I will have an additional barrier of protection against unwanted "transfers" -- it's easy to do to a Russian business, but it's much harder with foreign companies. And third, selling an app while being listed in app stores as a Russian company definitely won't improve my first impressions, given all the hype about Russian hackers (there's even an example of it in this thread!) By the way, if you want to register a company, go with a provder like LeapIN.eu -- they're fantastic.

soloadventurer 9y ago
Under Russian tax law, a company is a tax resident in Russia if (a) it is incorporated in Russia, (b) its management and central control are in Russia, or (c) if a treaty deems it to be in Russia. Estonia has no tax treaty with Russia, so (c) is not relevant. In your case, (a) is also not relevant. Point (b) is more interesting: do you live in Russia and exercise management of your Estonian company in Russia? If yes, then you own a Russian-resident company and Russian corporate tax law is applicable. You are required to prepare financial statements and file corporate tax returns in Russia. Presumably there's also many foreign ownership disclosure requirements. Please consider discussing your case with a tax advisor if you have not already done so. I would never ever easily recommend a citizen of an OECD country incorporate a company overseas without first thoroughly researching disclosure requirements and tax law. Please be careful as tax laws generally are of the "go straight to jail" type. I wish this Estonian e-residency program would contain more warnings in red about the significant impact such a foreign company will have on a shareholder. This applies to Atlas as well--non-US-residents need to be extremely careful with US corporations as there's a good chance they will not actually be resident in the US.

soloadventurer 9y ago

Under Russian tax law, a company is a tax resident in Russia if (a) it is incorporated in Russia, (b) its management and central control are in Russia, or (c) if a treaty deems it to be in Russia. Estonia has no tax treaty with Russia, so (c) is not relevant. In your case, (a) is also not relevant. Point (b) is more interesting: do you live in Russia and exercise management of your Estonian company in Russia? If yes, then you own a Russian-resident company and Russian corporate tax law is applicable. You are required to prepare financial statements and file corporate tax returns in Russia. Presumably there's also many foreign ownership disclosure requirements. Please consider discussing your case with a tax advisor if you have not already done so. I would never ever easily recommend a citizen of an OECD country incorporate a company overseas without first thoroughly researching disclosure requirements and tax law. Please be careful as tax laws generally are of the "go straight to jail" type. I wish this Estonian e-residency program would contain more warnings in red about the significant impact such a foreign company will have on a shareholder. This applies to Atlas as well--non-US-residents need to be extremely careful with US corporations as there's a good chance they will not actually be resident in the US.