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Move to Cyprus when you start drawing profit.

Estonia taxes nothing while profit stays in the company. Once you take it out, Estonia keeps 22% of the profit, against 15% in Cyprus and no tax on dividends for a non-dom. Your Estonian company stays Estonian wherever you live.

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Loe eesti keeles

What you keep when you take it out.

This compares paying out the whole profit. If you reinvest everything, Estonia charges nothing and wins. Move the slider to your own profit.

€200,000
In Estonia
Corporate tax
−€44,000
Tax on dividends
−€0
You keep
€156,000
In Cyprus
Corporate tax
−€30,000
Health contribution (GeSY)
−€4,505
You keep
€165,495

More in your pocket+€9,495every year

More in your pocket +€9,495 every year

Estonia: no tax on profit the company keeps. Distributed profit pays 22/78, which is 22% of the pre-tax profit, and an ordinary 2026 dividend carries no further personal tax. The calculator assumes you take everything out.

Headline rates for a founder who takes the profit out as dividends and has become Cyprus tax resident with non-dom status. Your own figures will differ. This is an illustration, not tax advice.

What Estonia asks before you go.

Estonia's departure rules are mechanical. Get these right with an Estonian tax adviser and the rest is paperwork.

  • No exit tax on you

    Estonia's exit tax applies to companies that move assets or their residence abroad, not to people. Your Estonian company (OÜ) doesn't move when you do, so emigrating triggers nothing, however much your shares have grown.

  • Your company stays Estonian

    Estonia decides where a company belongs by where it was registered. Your OÜ stays Estonian wherever you run it from, and a Cyprus company run from Tallinn doesn't become Estonian. Cyprus, though, can claim an OÜ run from Cyprus.

  • Closing the OÜ settles the bill

    Winding up the OÜ counts as paying out its profit. Profit that sat untaxed in the company for years pays Estonia's 22% on the way out.

  • Count both ends of every trip

    You're resident if you spend 183 days in Estonia in any 12 months in a row, and arrival and departure days each count as a whole day. Cross the line and you're resident for the whole year. One New Year visit can do it.

  • Cyprus certificate first, then the form

    You end Estonian residency on the tax office's residency form (vorm R). If you need the tax treaty, the tax office wants a Cyprus residency certificate first, so get that before you file.

  • e-Residency isn't residency

    e-Residency is a digital ID for signing, not a tax status. You're taxed where you actually live, whatever the OÜ files in Estonia.

Where Cyprus pulls ahead.

A flat 15%, a 3% IP Box, and dividends free of tax for 17 years with non-dom status.

Corporate tax
15%
One flat rate, with no local surcharges.
Tax on dividends
0%
As a non-dom, for up to 17 years.
Days a year for tax residency
60
Under the 60-day rule, with a home and a business here.
Wealth or inheritance tax
0
Cyprus has neither.
  • As an Estonian citizen you're an EU citizen, so you register with the Yellow Slip, which we file with you. No visa, no permit.
  • Estonia's rule that taxes a foreign company's profit at home catches only artificial setups. A Cyprus company with real staff and premises is outside it, even on IP Box income.
  • Estonia taxes your gain on a share sale at 22%. Cyprus generally exempts gains on qualifying securities, which matters if you plan to sell.
  • The 60-day rule's 183-day limit is the same number Estonia uses, so a plan built for Cyprus tends to end Estonian residence too.

The move, if it pays.

Estonia sets no deadline for its half. The first question is whether you should move at all.

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  1. First

    Check you're done reinvesting

    If you're still reinvesting, the move loses money, and we'll say so on the call. If not, we look at the payouts you actually plan to take.

  2. Month 1We do this

    Form the Cyprus company

    We register it with tax, VAT and VIES. Your books open the day you order.

  3. Month 1We do this

    Yellow Slip and a lease

    We apply for your Yellow Slip with you. You sign a Cyprus lease in your own name and start counting your days in Estonia, both ends of every trip.

  4. Month 1 to 3

    Run the company from Cyprus

    Become director of the Cyprus company and take its decisions in Cyprus, recorded in minutes. Cyprus decides where a company belongs by where it's really run.

  5. Month 3 to 9

    Decide the OÜ's future

    With an Estonian tax adviser, decide whether to keep the OÜ, put it under the Cyprus company or wind it down. Winding down pays the 22% on the profit it kept. We can recommend an adviser if you need one.

  6. After year oneWe do this

    Tax residency and non-dom

    We register your Cyprus tax residency and non-dom status, and get you your Cyprus residency certificate.

  7. Then

    File the residency form

    Your Estonian adviser files vorm R to end your Estonian residency, now that the tax office can see the Cyprus certificate.

The Cyprus side, done for you.

Fixed prices, excl. VAT, agreed before you start. Government fees are charged at cost, on top of our fee, once your application is approved.

What Estonian founders ask.

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It depends on whether you take the money out. Estonia charges nothing on profit the company keeps, with no time limit. Cyprus charges 15% as profit comes in. On €300,000 of profit you reinvest, Cyprus takes €45,000 a year and Estonia nothing. On payouts it flips. Pay out €250,000 and Cyprus leaves you about €12,700 more each year.

No. Estonia has no exit tax on people. Its exit tax applies only to a company that moves its assets or its residence abroad, and your OÜ doesn't move when you do. You can leave with shares worth any amount and owe nothing on the way out.

When your permanent or main home is no longer in Estonia and you spend under 183 days there in any 12 months in a row, counting arrival and departure days. Owning a flat alone doesn't make you resident. The change counts from the day you actually leave. File vorm R to record it, once you have your Cyprus certificate if you need the treaty.

Yes, but count every day. Arrival and departure days each count in full, so a weekend in Tallinn can use up four days. Reach 183 days in any 12 months in a row and you're resident for the whole year. Christmas, a family event and a couple of board meetings add up faster than people expect.

Not in Estonia's eyes. Estonia decides where a company belongs by where it was registered, so your OÜ stays Estonian. Cyprus looks at where a company is really run, though, so an OÜ run from Cyprus can become Cypriot too. That's two countries claiming one company, settled by the treaty, and it's why most founders put the trading company in Cyprus.

You can keep it, put it under your Cyprus company, or close it. Keeping it triggers nothing. Under a Cyprus parent, its payouts go up with no Estonian tax withheld, and it pays the 22% when it distributes, as it always did. Closing it counts as paying out everything, so years of untaxed profit pay the 22% at once. Plan it with an Estonian adviser.

None. e-Residency is a digital ID for signing and running an Estonian company online, not a residence permit or a tax residence. The company is Estonian because it was registered there. You're taxed where you actually live, and if the company is run from abroad, that country can tax its income.

No. Under the 60-day rule you can be Cyprus tax resident with 60 days a year here, a home you rent or own, a business or job in Cyprus, and no more than 183 days in any other country. Directing your own Cyprus company can count as the business. The 183-day limit matches Estonia's, so the same plan tends to end your Estonian residency too.

Two things many articles miss. The lower 14/86 rate ended on 1 January 2025, so an ordinary dividend now pays 22/78 at company level and nothing more personally. The 7% personal tax only reaches old transitional dividends. And the planned 2% security tax was never imposed on company profit, so profit you keep in the company is still untaxed.

Plan your move with us.

Tell us what you own and when you'd like to move. We'll tell you what applies, what it costs, and what to do first.

  • Which rules at home affect you
  • The order to do things in
  • A fixed price for the Cyprus side

30 minutes, by video, free

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Your move, one partner.

We form your company, apply for your residency with you and keep your books.

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