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Do you pay income tax for receiving dividends from an Estonian company if you live in Cyprus? How much corporate tax would you pay?

You would probably pay the same taxes as if it was a Cypriot company. Unless you can show that the company has substance in Estonia and is managed from there. In theory at least, of course Cyprus may not enforce the rules.
 
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Do you pay income tax for receiving dividends from an Estonian company if you live in Cyprus? How much corporate tax would you pay?

You pay 20% when you distribute dividends from Estonian company. You don't want to use the Estonian company as the operating company but as a holding.

Dividends distributed by Estonian companies are exempt from corporate income tax (‘participation exemption’) if these are paid out of:

profits derived through a permanent establishment (“PE”) in the EU, EEA or Switzerland;


You register the Estonian company with tax authorities in Cyprus in order to create a permanent establishment there and be taxed at 12,5% in Cyprus

You pay yourself tax free in Cyprus 19,500€ and distribuite the remaining dividends to the Estonian head office.

Then, when you'll distribute dividends from the Estonian head to yourself there will be tax free.

Obviously you first need to move you residence in a country where foreign income in not taxed.

That way you only pay 12,5% taxes, you only have to be in Cyprus 60 days a year to be considered tax resident in Cyprus and if you really want it you could operate an offshore company, pay yourself dividends tax free in Cyprus from the offshore company and transfer everything in Estonia but i admit this last part is a bit of a grey zone.

How about that for a plan?
 
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Why not move to Bulgaria then? 10% flat and a very simple structure (no risk).
The more countries you involve, the higher the risk that there will be problems.

If you want to involve Estonia, you can just get residency there (rent a cheap apartment), then pay yourself dividends from a company outside of Estonia. You do not have to spend time in Estonia to be considered tax resident. There will be no Estonian tax, as far as I know. However, this only works if the company paid a certain amount of corporate income tax. I am not sure what the rules are - if only certain “tax haven” countries are excluded and only the head tax rate is considered (so Romanian 1% revenue tax would be fine), or if the actual tax paid has to be at least X%. Anyway, 9-10% should probably be fine for Estonia.
You’d have residency in an EU country, you don’t have to spend any time there and you only pay the corporate income tax in the other country. You might have to show that the company isn’t managed from Estonia, but that shouldn’t be an issue if you don’t spend much time there. The tax filings are supposed to be extremely simple in Estonia and everything is online and in English.
I would prefer that over spending 60 days in Cyprus...
 
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I'm not sure what are you suggesting.

Are you suggesting to open a bulgarian company? Well i don't want to live there and i have to stay 183 days to be tax resident. Not something that i want to do. Of course i could rent an apartment and live around the world but i wouldn't do it.

Also it's not clear your structure involving the Estonian company.
 
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Like I said, the minimum time required for Estonia is zero days. If you don’t want to spend any time in a country anyway, I would say 0 is better than 60?

I’ll open a new thread about the details.

By the way, someone mentioned that in practice, you’d get a tax residence certificate from the UAE if you spend 30 days there. Not sure if it’s true.
 
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Like I said, the minimum time required for Estonia is zero days. If you don’t want to spend any time in a country anyway, I would say 0 is better than 60?
I got that but i can't use the branch strategy if i'm tax resident in Estonia, that's why i'm not sure what you are suggesting here. Using the estonian company for operations is not the best strategy since you'll have to pay 20% on dividends, instead if you relocate to Cyprus for 60 days, or Hungary you'll pay 12,5% or 9%.
 
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I see no advantage in doing this Estonia, Cyprus arrangement. The costs and time invested in this will be much greater than being able to get 19,500 tax free. Even if you distribute all of it from an Estonian company, you'd pay 3,800 tax, but a much more simple, uncomplicated, near compliance free operation.
Moreover, I see virtually no advantage to have an Estonia company, unless you are non-EU and from a high risk country without access to PayPal, SEPA, and other merchants. Or, if you for some reason decided that you want to live in Estonia.
 
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I read everything but I am not sure to understand the goal of this setup.


You register the Estonian company with tax authorities in Cyprus in order to create a permanent establishment there and be taxed at 12,5% in Cyprus

You pay yourself tax free in Cyprus 19,500€ and distribuite the remaining dividends to the Estonian head office.

Then, when you'll distribute dividends from the Estonian head to yourself there will be tax free.

Why not creating directly a LLC in Cyprus. It's 12.5% CIT and dividends are already tax free.
With another juridiction for a holding, I could understand for reputation or access to EMI (Transferwise USD may be) and even, I don't really see the benefit. With Malta setup, of course I got it.

But why with Cyprus? What's the real benefit to do Estonia + Cyprus (being tax resident in Cyprus)?
 
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You pay 20% when you distribute dividends from Estonian company. You don't want to use the Estonian company as the operating company but as a holding.

Dividends distributed by Estonian companies are exempt from corporate income tax (‘participation exemption’) if these are paid out of:

profits derived through a permanent establishment (“PE”) in the EU, EEA or Switzerland;


You register the Estonian company with tax authorities in Cyprus in order to create a permanent establishment there and be taxed at 12,5% in Cyprus

You pay yourself tax free in Cyprus 19,500€ and distribuite the remaining dividends to the Estonian head office.

Then, when you'll distribute dividends from the Estonian head to yourself there will be tax free.

Obviously you first need to move you residence in a country where foreign income in not taxed.

That way you only pay 12,5% taxes, you only have to be in Cyprus 60 days a year to be considered tax resident in Cyprus and if you really want it you could operate an offshore company, pay yourself dividends tax free in Cyprus from the offshore company and transfer everything in Estonia but i admit this last part is a bit of a grey zone.

How about that for a plan?
I like your thinking if the Estonian with PE in cyprus can be more easily administered than a Cyprus company.
 
Hello,

I also would strongly advise not to open estonian company. I applied once for e residency which was kind of scam. I payd much money and verified. Allways when I wanted to use the " e residence " card it was not poissible / to complicate / the card was not valid anymore. STAY AWAY
 
Hello,

I also would strongly advise not to open estonian company. I applied once for e residency which was kind of scam. I payd much money and verified. Allways when I wanted to use the " e residence " card it was not poissible / to complicate / the card was not valid anymore. STAY AWAY
At the moment I am closing a senseless estonian company . It was running a 1,5 years with around 30k turnover. The cost to close it are around 7000 euro ( accounting, fees, etc ) STAY AWAY . Better allways go directly to Cyprus . All other jurisdictions are worse in EU / EEA
 
You pay 20% when you distribute dividends from Estonian company. You don't want to use the Estonian company as the operating company but as a holding.

Dividends distributed by Estonian companies are exempt from corporate income tax (‘participation exemption’) if these are paid out of:

profits derived through a permanent establishment (“PE”) in the EU, EEA or Switzerland;


You register the Estonian company with tax authorities in Cyprus in order to create a permanent establishment there and be taxed at 12,5% in Cyprus

You pay yourself tax free in Cyprus 19,500€ and distribuite the remaining dividends to the Estonian head office.

Then, when you'll distribute dividends from the Estonian head to yourself there will be tax free.

Obviously you first need to move you residence in a country where foreign income in not taxed.

That way you only pay 12,5% taxes, you only have to be in Cyprus 60 days a year to be considered tax resident in Cyprus and if you really want it you could operate an offshore company, pay yourself dividends tax free in Cyprus from the offshore company and transfer everything in Estonia but i admit this last part is a bit of a grey zone.

How about that for a plan?
The only issue I see here is which most people won't know probably. But not all service providers for Estonian companies (which you are required to have) do permanent establishments or at least the provider I have doesn't.

Just a question about your write up, but I don't understand why there's another offshore company coming in?

Isn't it enough to just have your estonian company registered in Cyprus as permanent establishment? Then you pay yourself according to Cyprus laws up to 19500. The rest you pay through dividends at 12.5% in the assumption that DTA exempt you from paying anything in Estonia? Because your company will have dual residence so DTA should decide on those taxes... (cyprus effective management and estonia because it was incorporated there): Permanent establishment and dual residence: An overview - E-Residency Hub

Also
> Obviously you first need to move you residence in a country where foreign income in not taxed.

Isn't that already done by doing the non-dom scheme in Cyprus?
 
The only issue I see here is which most people won't know probably. But not all service providers for Estonian companies (which you are required to have) do permanent establishments or at least the provider I have doesn't.
Feel free to reach out to me. We can also help with obtaining Cyprus residency.
 

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