You registered your OÜ, opened a bank account, maybe even sent your first invoice. Everything feels official. But there’s one obligation that catches e-residents off guard every single year – the annual report. It sounds boring. It is boring. But ignoring it can cost you your company. Literally.
Every company must file – no exceptions
Every company on the Estonian Business Register must submit an annual report within six months after the end of the financial year. For most companies, that means the deadline is 30 June. Here’s what surprises many founders: even if your company had zero revenue, zero expenses, and zero bank transactions all year, you still have to file. There is no exemption for dormant or inactive companies. You submit what’s called a “zero report” – a formal confirmation that nothing happened. The Business Register doesn’t care how active you were. It cares that you reported.
What happens if you don’t file?
It starts with an official warning from the Business Register. If you ignore that, penalty proceedings begin, and they apply to you personally as a board member, not just to the company. If non-compliance continues, the Business Register can initiate “compulsory deletion” of your company. Your OÜ disappears from the register, along with any contracts, bank accounts, or partnerships tied to it. We’ve seen this happen more than once. A founder forgets about the annual report, doesn’t respond to warnings, often because they never set up proper mail forwarding, and months later discovers their company no longer exists. Getting back on track from that point is far more expensive and stressful than simply filing on time.
“But my company was dormant…”
This is the most common misunderstanding. Many e-residents assume that if nothing happened, there’s nothing to report. But Estonian law sees it differently. A dormant company must still submit a properly formatted annual report with zero figures, prepared according to Estonian accounting standards and signed digitally by the board member. It’s a quick process when done right, but it still needs to happen.
What does the annual report actually contain?
For most e-resident companies, which qualify as micro-sized, the report is relatively straightforward. It typically includes a balance sheet showing your assets, liabilities, and equity at year-end, an income statement summarising revenue and expenses for the year, and the required notes and disclosures. The report is filed digitally through the Estonian Business Register portal and must be signed with your e-Residency card or Smart-ID. Once submitted, it becomes a public document – anyone can look it up. Banks, partners, and potential investors often do exactly that. A missing or sloppy annual report is one of the first red flags they notice.
Don’t leave it until June
Every spring, accountants across Estonia handle a wave of last-minute requests from founders who forgot about their annual reports. The result is predictable: longer turnaround times, more back-and-forth, and sometimes missed deadlines. The founders who have the smoothest experience are the ones who reach out early – ideally in the first quarter of the year. That gives enough time to gather bank statements, sort out any missing documents, and handle the whole process calmly. If you’re not sure whether your annual report has been filed, or if your company has been dormant and you’re unsure what to do, don’t wait!
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We prepare and submit annual reports for both active and dormant e-resident companies. Get in touch below or write to us at info@tuneup.ee