Estonian companies are famous for being run from anywhere, yet almost all of them still show a Tallinn or Tartu address in the register. This article explains when a registered office abroad became legal and what it obliges the owner to do, then uses Commercial Register open data to show how many companies have taken the option and in which countries.
Quick answer
An Estonian private limited company (OÜ) may have its registered address outside Estonia. The one condition, set by § 24 of the Commercial Register Act, is a licensed contact person in Estonia, and it applies to e-residents and any other founder alike. Commercial Register open data shows that only 1,448 OÜs, 0.49% of the total, use this option. They are spread across 102 countries and territories, with Germany, Spain, France, Turkey and the United Kingdom at the top.
Can an Estonian Company Have a Foreign Address? Yes, With One Condition
Since the Commercial Register Act (äriregistri seadus) took effect on 1 February 2023, an Estonian company may have its registered address either in Estonia or in any other country. An e-resident in Lisbon or a founder in Riga can therefore enter their own address abroad as the company’s legal address. Before that, from 15 January 2018, the management board could sit abroad, but the registered office itself had to stay in Estonia.
The Act ties the contact-person obligation to the address alone. Under § 24(2) a contact person is mandatory when the company’s address is outside Estonia, and only then. A company with an Estonian address is not required by law to have one, which is why most non-resident founders still use a legal address service rather than their home address.
A contact person is not a director and cannot act for the company. Their job is to receive court documents and official notices on its behalf: once a document reaches them, the law treats it as delivered to the company (§ 24(7)). Section 24(4) restricts the role to notaries, attorneys, sworn auditors, tax representatives of non-residents and licensed trust and company service providers.
The appointment always has an end date (§ 24(6)). If it is not extended in time, the register deletes the contact person automatically, and a company with a foreign registered address is left in breach of § 24(2). The registrar may then publish a note about contact difficulties on the company’s e-Business Register card (§ 55) and, after a warning deadline plus three months, strike the company off (§ 62). The procedure for appointing and renewing a contact person is described in our step-by-step guide.
How Many Estonian OÜs Are Registered at a Foreign Address
Not many. The register lists 293,371 private limited companies, and 1,448 of them have a registered address abroad.
| Indicator | Figure |
|---|---|
| OÜs in the Commercial Register | 293,371 |
| OÜs with a registered address outside Estonia | 1,448 |
| Share of all OÜs | 0.49% |
| Countries and territories represented | 102 |
| In normal registered status | 1,393 (96%) |
| In liquidation or bankruptcy | 55 (4%) |
For scale, e-residents alone have established more than 43,000 Estonian companies. Even if every OÜ with an address abroad belonged to an e-resident, which the data cannot confirm, that would still be only one e-resident company in thirty.
Top Ten Countries Where Estonian Companies Keep Their Registered Address
| Rank | Country | Estonian OÜs with an address there | Share of all foreign-address OÜs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | 131 | 9.0% |
| 2 | Spain | 124 | 8.6% |
| 3 | France | 89 | 6.1% |
| 3 | Turkey | 89 | 6.1% |
| 5 | United Kingdom | 88 | 6.1% |
| 6 | Ukraine | 67 | 4.6% |
| 7 | Portugal | 53 | 3.7% |
| 8 | Italy | 49 | 3.4% |
| 9 | Latvia | 42 | 2.9% |
| 10 | Finland | 39 | 2.7% |
The top five countries account for 36% of all foreign-address OÜs, the top ten for 53% and the top twenty for 74%. The list closely mirrors e-Residency: in the programme’s latest annual figures, the five nationalities that founded the most Estonian companies were Ukrainian, Spanish, Turkish, German and French, and all five countries sit in the top six of this ranking. The United Kingdom, in fifth place, is the one addition. Estonia’s neighbours form a group of their own: Latvia, Finland and Lithuania hold 119 companies between them.
EU First, Then a Long Tail Across 56 Other Countries
Every one of the other 26 EU member states appears in the list. Together they hold 836 companies, or 58% of the total. The United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland add 132 (9%), and other European and Caucasus countries, led by Turkey and Ukraine, a further 209 (14%).
The remaining 271 companies (19%) are spread across 56 countries on other continents: 93 in Asia, where India, China, Japan and Thailand lead; 84 in the Americas, 37 of them in the United States; 66 in the Middle East and North Africa, led by Israel and the UAE; 16 in sub-Saharan Africa and 12 in Oceania. In 26 of these countries there is exactly one.
Does a Foreign Registered Address Change the Tax Picture?
No, it does not. Estonia treats every company founded under Estonian law as its tax resident, whatever legal address is in the register (Income Tax Act § 6(2)). The country where the owner actually manages the business may make its own claim through place-of-management or permanent-establishment rules, a risk that is exactly the same for a company registered at a Tallinn address. Our article on running an Estonian company while living abroad explains how it works in practice.
About the data
Figures come from the Commercial Register open-data file ettevotja_rekvisiidid__lihtandmed.csv, extract of September 2026, for the legal form osaühing. A company counts as foreign-addressed when it has an address but no Estonian EHAK location code, with the country taken from the address record. “Registered” means entered in the register; it does not prove that the company is trading.
Legal Address and Contact Person From Eesti Firma
Whether you want a legal address in Tallinn or plan to register your Estonian company at your own address abroad, Eesti Firma, a licensed trust and company service provider, can supply the address and act as your contact person in Estonia. We also track the renewal date, so the register entry never lapses unnoticed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Since the Commercial Register Act took effect, an Estonian company’s registered address may be in any country. The only extra requirement is a licensed contact person in Estonia, appointed for a fixed term.
Not by law. The obligation in § 24(2) applies only when the address is abroad. Many foreign owners still appoint one voluntarily so that official post reaches someone who reads Estonian and can react quickly.
The register removes the entry automatically. A company with a foreign address is then non-compliant: the registrar may publish a contact-difficulties note and, after a deadline and a further three months, delete the company from the register.
