Quick answer
Yes, an Estonian OÜ can publish apps on the App Store and Google Play under its own name. Both stores require an organisation account, a free D-U-N-S number and a company website, and Apple also checks your right to sign for the company. Apple and Google then sell to customers and handle their VAT in most countries, while your company receives a monthly payout.
Many app developers start publishing under their own name and only later notice that the store account decides who the seller is. With an individual account, you personally are the seller in Apple’s and Google’s records, and the income belongs to you rather than to your company. For your Estonian private limited company (OÜ) to appear as the seller and receive the money, the company itself has to open the Apple and Google Play developer accounts.
This guide explains what to prepare before you apply, how enrolment works with Apple and Google, what each store charges, how payouts reach a company account and which taxes stay with your OÜ. The process is the same for founders who run the company through e-Residency and for those who live in Estonia.
Personal or Company Developer Account?
Both stores offer two types of account. A personal account, which Apple calls an individual one, is quick to open, but you are the seller: Apple shows your own name on the store page, and the income from the store is legally yours. It is then usually taxed as your personal income in the country where you live. An organisation account, which the stores’ own pages spell organization, belongs to a legal entity: Apple lists the company’s legal name as the seller of your apps, and both stores pay the proceeds to the company.
For an Estonian OÜ, an organisation account is the way to keep app income inside the company, where profit stays untaxed for as long as it is not paid out. Google itself asks businesses and anyone engaged in commercial activity to choose this type of account, and it also saves time on Android. New personal accounts must run a closed test with at least 12 testers for 14 days before an app can go live, and this rule does not cover organisation accounts.
If you have already enrolled as an individual, you can still move to the company. Apple converts an individual membership into an organisation one on request, provided you are a founder or co-founder of the company and give its D-U-N-S number; Apple may also ask for company documents. Google lets you change the account type in Play Console once your personal account is fully verified. You confirm the company’s website, create an organisation payments profile with the D-U-N-S number and link it to the developer account.
What You Need Before You Apply
Most delays come from details that do not match, so it pays to prepare the following before you start:
- a registered Estonian company whose details in the Commercial Register are up to date
- a D-U-N-S number in the company’s exact legal name, such as Nordwave OÜ
- a public, working website on a domain that belongs to the company
- an email address on that domain and a phone number where you can be reached
- the right to sign for the company, which in an OÜ normally means being a member of the management board
- a credit or debit card for the store fees (Google does not accept prepaid cards) and a business account in the company’s name for payouts
The D-U-N-S number is a free nine-digit identifier issued by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), a private business data company. Many Estonian companies already have one without knowing it, because D&B collects data from the business register. Our guide to what a D-U-N-S number is explains how to look it up or request one. Through Apple’s lookup tool, a new number can take up to five business days to arrive, and up to two more to reach Apple.
Both stores compare what you enter with the D&B record, so the company’s name and address must match that record and the Commercial Register exactly. If the company has changed its name or address since D&B created the record, have the record corrected before you apply. Keep in mind, too, that Google Play shows users an organisation’s legal name and address, together with the developer email and phone number. That is a good reason to use the company’s registered address rather than your home address.
How to Enrol Your OÜ in the Apple Developer Program
A company’s Apple developer account is opened through the Apple Developer Program, and enrolment takes place online in four steps:
- Sign in on the Apple Developer website with an Apple Account that has two-factor authentication turned on, and choose to enrol as a company or organisation.
- Enter the company’s legal name, D-U-N-S number, headquarters address, phone number and website, together with your work email.
- Wait for Apple’s verification, which includes a check that you have the authority to bind the company to Apple’s agreements.
- Pay the annual membership fee of US$99, which Apple shows in your local currency during enrolment.
Apple enrols only legal entities, not trade names or branches, and the website must be live and use a domain associated with the company. If the person enrolling is not the company’s owner or founder, Apple asks for a reference who can confirm that person’s authority. Apple’s enrolment page lists the current requirements.
Membership alone lets you publish free apps. To sell apps or in-app purchases, you also accept the Paid Apps Agreement in App Store Connect, Apple’s portal for managing apps and sales. There you add the company’s bank account and complete the US tax form described below. Apple sends payments only once all three are in place.
How to Open a Google Play Developer Account for an OÜ
On Google Play, you create the developer account in Play Console, Google’s portal for publishing apps, choose the organisation account type and pay a one-off registration fee of US$25. The account is linked to a Google payments profile, where you enter the company’s D-U-N-S number, legal name and address. Google requires a D-U-N-S number for every new organisation account.
Google then verifies the organisation and its contact details before you can publish. You confirm the email addresses and phone numbers with one-time codes, and Google may ask you to upload documents confirming the company’s legal name and address. For an Estonian company, an extract from the Commercial Register serves this purpose, and anyone can download one free of charge from the e-Business Register.
App Store and Google Play Fees Compared
Free apps cost nothing beyond the account fees. On paid apps, in-app purchases and subscriptions, each store keeps a share of the price, and the rate depends on your earnings, the type of sale and the buyer’s country.
| App Store | Google Play (outside the EEA, UK and US) | |
|---|---|---|
| Account fee | US$99 a year | US$25 once |
| Standard rate | 30%, or 26% on EU storefronts | 30% on yearly earnings above US$1 million |
| Reduced rate | 15% for members of the Small Business Program, with up to US$1 million in yearly proceeds, and for subscriptions after their first year | 15% on the first US$1 million of yearly earnings and on subscriptions |
| Payout timing | Within 45 days after the end of Apple’s fiscal month | Around the 15th of the following month |
The reduced rates are not automatic. Apple’s 15% requires a short enrolment in the App Store Small Business Program, and Google’s 15% tier is also activated in Play Console. On EU storefronts, the 26% and 15% rates come from Apple’s unified business terms for the EU.
For buyers in the EEA, the UK and the US, Google uses a separate fee table that splits its charge into a service fee and a 5% billing fee for purchases made through Google Play’s billing system. There, the service fee is 10% on subscriptions and on the first US$1 million of yearly earnings, so a small developer usually pays 15% in total. Above that amount, other purchases cost 20% or 25% plus the billing fee, depending on when the user first installed the app, and less in certain Google Play programmes.
Getting Paid into Your Company’s Account
Apple pays within 45 days of the last day of the fiscal month in which a sale took place. Its fiscal months follow Apple’s own calendar rather than calendar months, and proceeds in each currency are combined into one payment per month. Payments go to a single bank account, and a balance below the minimum threshold for your bank’s country and currency rolls over to the next month.
Google pays around the 15th of the month after the sale, so sales made in May are paid out in mid-June. The minimum is US$1 for payouts in local currency and US$100 for payouts by US dollar bank transfer.
Depending on when in the month a sale happens, the money can take anything from two weeks to over two months to reach your account, so plan your cash flow with that delay in mind. Payouts should go to a business account held in the company’s name, never to a personal one. Our overview of business accounts for Estonian companies compares banks and payment institutions.
Fees and terms change
The fees, payout rules and enrolment requirements in this article reflect Apple’s and Google’s help pages as of November 2026. Both companies revise them, so check the current terms before you enrol.
Taxes on App Store and Google Play Income
The stores take over most of the tax work on sales to customers. What remains with your OÜ is Estonian VAT, a US tax form and corporate income tax.
Who Charges VAT to Your Customers
In most countries, customers buy from the store rather than from your company. Under Apple’s agreement, its Irish company Apple Distribution International acts as your commissionaire for most countries, including the EU. A commissionaire sells your apps in its own name on your behalf, and Apple collects and pays the taxes on those sales. Google acts as your agent and merchant of record for sales in the EEA and the other countries on its list, and it charges and pays the VAT there.
Both stores publish lists of the countries where they handle tax. Where a country is missing from the list, the tax on sales there may remain your company’s responsibility, so check the lists before you make an app available everywhere. If you also sell subscriptions on the web, outside the stores, a merchant of record such as Paddle takes the same role for those sales.
VAT for Your Estonian Company
Your OÜ sells to the store, which for EU sales means one of Apple’s or Google’s companies in Ireland. A cross-border sale of services between two businesses takes place outside Estonia for VAT purposes, and the buyer accounts for any VAT through the reverse charge. Since only turnover whose place of supply is in Estonia counts towards the €40,000 VAT registration threshold, app store income on its own does not oblige your company to register for Estonian VAT.
If the company is registered for VAT anyway, for example because it also invoices clients in Estonia, the income from the Irish companies still appears in the VAT return. Your accountant reports it among services supplied to businesses in other EU countries and lists the same sales in the monthly report of intra-Community supplies.
US Tax Forms
Apple requires every developer to complete a US tax form for the Paid Apps Agreement, including companies that never sell in the United States, and Google asks for US tax information in the payments profile. An Estonian OÜ normally completes Form W-8BEN-E, which certifies that it is a foreign company and the beneficial owner of its income. In App Store Connect, a short set of questions leads you to the right form. Apple does not pay out until the form is in place, and Google links timely payouts to complete tax information, so fill it in as soon as the account is open. If you plan to claim benefits under the tax treaty between Estonia and the United States, check the details with a tax adviser first.
Corporate Income Tax and Bookkeeping
Each month, App Store Connect and Play Console produce financial reports showing sales, the store’s commission, taxes and the amount paid out. These reports serve as source documents for your bookkeeping. In most cases the company’s revenue is the amount the store owes it after its commission, converted into euros, and the report explains each payout on the bank statement. Some accountants show gross sales and the commission separately instead, so agree on one method with your accountant and keep to it every month.
Corporate income tax then follows the general Estonian rule: the company pays no tax on profit it keeps, and the tax falls due when the profit is distributed, usually as dividends. Our guide to corporate income tax in Estonia explains how the tax is calculated, and our article on accounting for IT companies covers bookkeeping for software businesses.
Company Setup and Accounting for App Developers
If you do not have an Estonian company yet, we can register one for you, online with your e-Residency card or through a notary while you stay at home. We can also provide the registered address and keep the company’s details in the Commercial Register up to date, which helps the D-U-N-S record and the store checks go smoothly. Once your apps start earning, our accounting team can book the monthly store reports, apply the VAT rules described above and prepare the annual report.
Tell us what kind of apps you build and where your users are, and we will say what the company needs before it enrols.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Neither store requires the founder to live in Estonia. Both stores compare the company’s details with its D-U-N-S record and look at its website. Apple also checks that the person enrolling can sign for the company, and a board member living abroad can do that.
The payouts are company revenue, and profit kept in the company is not taxed in Estonia. Corporate income tax becomes due only when the company distributes profit, for example as dividends. With a personal developer account, the same income would usually be taxed as your personal income where you live.
No. Your company sells to the store, and for EU sales the buyer is Apple’s or Google’s company in Ireland. This sale between businesses is taxed through the reverse charge in the buyer’s country, so your OÜ does not add Estonian VAT.
No. For VAT purposes your company sells to Apple’s and Google’s companies abroad, and such sales are left out of the €40,000 threshold, which counts only supplies made in Estonia. An OÜ whose only income comes from the App Store and Google Play is therefore not obliged to register for Estonian VAT.
Apple pays within 45 days after the end of each fiscal month, which follows Apple’s own calendar. Google pays around the 15th of the month after the sale. Both pay only once the balance passes a small minimum and the company’s banking and tax details are complete.
