If your company's registered address is outside Estonia, you must appoint a contact person here. It is the one line item a non-resident founder pays for as long as the company exists, it is bought from a private provider, and almost every guide describes it as half of a bundle rather than as the legal requirement it actually is.
Required only if your address is abroad — and it is an alternative to an Estonian address, not an addition
Either the company has a legal address in Estonia, or it uses your own address abroad and appoints a licensed contact person here. Those are alternatives. Most non-resident founders buy both from one provider, which is why they are sold together and mistaken for one requirement.
It must be a licensed company or a notary — not a friend in Tallinn. Their legal role is narrow: they receive official notices for the company and have no authority to act for it. Expect €200–€400 a year, which is e-Residency's own published estimate.
Table of Contents
When You Need One
The trigger is the company's registered address, not your own nationality or where you live.
Estonian legal address
The company is registered at an address in Estonia:
- No contact person is required
- Official post arrives at that address
- Usually bought as a virtual office from a service provider
Address abroad
The company uses your own address outside Estonia:
- A licensed contact person in Estonia is required
- They receive official notices on the company's behalf
- The register will not complete the entry without one
The Centre of Registers puts it in one line on the establishment page: if the address of the private limited company is in a foreign country, a contact person must also be added.
Why almost every guide gets this slightly wrong
They present "legal address and contact person" as a single mandatory purchase. It is genuinely either/or in law — e-Residency's own knowledge base says you need either an Estonian legal address, or your domestic address plus a licensed contact person. The reason the bundle exists is commercial rather than legal: most providers sell the Estonian address and the contact person together, and most founders want the address anyway so their post does not go to their kitchen table. Knowing it is a choice matters when you already have a real Estonian address — through an employer, a co-working contract or a genuine office — because then you are buying something you do not need.
Who May Act as One
Not anyone you know. e-Residency states the requirement plainly: for companies with a foreign management board address, you must use a licensed company or a notary to provide a local contact person.
That rules out the arrangement people reach for first — a friend, a relative, or an employee living in Tallinn. It is not a question of trust; the role is licensed.
This is where the recurring cost is unavoidable
Because the role is restricted to licensed providers and notaries, there is no free version and no way to do it yourself. It is the one cost of an Estonian company that cannot be optimised away by doing more of the work personally — unlike accounting, which you can genuinely take on yourself.
What They Actually Do
Much less than the name suggests, and the limit is the reassuring part.
| Contact person | |
|---|---|
| Receives official notices for the company | Yes — this is the whole role |
| Can sign for the company | No |
| Can act on the company's behalf | No — e-Residency states they do not need rights to act for you |
| Is a director or board member | No |
| Has access to your bank account | No |
| Is liable for the company's obligations | No |
e-Residency describes the function as acting as a messenger for your company for local authorities. Post from the Tax and Customs Board, the register or a court reaches the contact person, who forwards it to you. That is it.
The practical consequence is worth stating: you remain responsible for everything. A notice delivered to your contact person is delivered to the company. If they forward it and you ignore it, that is your problem, not theirs — and the deadline has already started running.
The Expiry Nobody Warns You About
The appointment has an end date, and the register deletes it automatically
The contact person is entered in the register with a term, and the register's own Estonian documentation is explicit: when the term passes, the contact person's details are deleted automatically. Nothing asks you to confirm. Nobody chases you.
This is the failure mode specific to this requirement. Everything else about running an Estonian company produces a reminder — the annual report has a deadline you can look up, VAT returns arrive monthly, your provider invoices you. The contact person entry simply lapses, and a company whose address is abroad and whose contact person has expired is not compliant.
Find out your end date
It is in the register entry, not in your provider's invoice. Look it up rather than assuming it matches your billing cycle — they are set independently and need not align.Diarise it separately from the invoice
Paying the renewal and the register entry being extended are two different events. A provider that has been paid has an incentive to file, but the register does not know that you paid.Check the entry after renewal
The e-Business Register shows the current contact person and their term. Confirming takes a minute and is the only way to know the filing actually happened.
What It Costs
€200–€400 a year is the state's own figure, not ours: e-Residency's knowledge base says the service "can be obtained from a virtual office service provider and is, on average, €200-400 per year". It is a useful number precisely because it is the government's estimate of a private market it does not price itself.
Of the providers whose price lists we read, one sells the address-and-contact-person bundle on its own at €290 a year, which sits inside that range. Providers bundling accounting do not price the contact person separately at all, so you cannot see what portion of a €89–99 monthly subscription is buying this.
Compare it against the thing people do budget for
Registering the company is €265, once. The contact person and address bundle at €290 a year exceeds the entire state cost of forming the company inside the first twelve months, and then does it again every year after. Founders budget the €265 and are surprised by this. See what an Estonian company actually costs for the full annual arithmetic.
Common Mistakes
Assuming you need both
An Estonian legal address and a contact person are alternatives. If you already have a genuine Estonian address, you are not required to buy a contact person as well.
Asking a friend in Tallinn
The role is restricted to licensed companies and notaries. A willing acquaintance cannot lawfully be appointed.
Expecting them to handle things
They forward official post. They cannot sign, act, or deal with anything on the company's behalf, and a notice delivered to them is delivered to you.
Assuming the register entry renews with the invoice
The entry carries its own end date and is deleted automatically when it passes. Paying your provider and the entry being extended are different events.
Budgeting it as a setup cost
It recurs for the life of the company and exceeds the one-off €265 state fee within the first year.
Thinking it makes you tax resident in Estonia
It does not. A contact person is a postal arrangement, and neither it nor an Estonian legal address changes where you are taxed personally.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a contact person for my Estonian company?
Only if the company's registered address is outside Estonia. The Centre of Registers states that where the address of the private limited company is in a foreign country, a contact person must also be added. If you have an Estonian legal address, you do not need one — they are alternatives rather than a pair.
Who can be my contact person in Estonia?
A licensed company or a notary. e-Residency states that for companies with a foreign management board address it is required to use a licensed company or notary to provide a local contact person. A friend, relative or employee living in Estonia cannot lawfully fill the role.
What does a contact person actually do?
They receive official notices for the company and forward them to you — e-Residency describes the role as acting as a messenger for your company for local authorities. They cannot sign for the company, act on its behalf, or take decisions, and e-Residency states explicitly that they do not need to be granted rights to act for you. You remain responsible for everything, and a notice delivered to them is delivered to the company.
How much does a contact person cost in Estonia?
e-Residency's own estimate is €200–400 a year from a virtual office service provider. Of the price lists we read, one sells the address and contact person bundled at €290 a year. Providers that bundle accounting do not price the contact person separately, so its share of their monthly fee is not visible.
Does the contact person appointment expire?
Yes, and this is the part that catches people. The contact person is entered in the register with a term, and the register's own documentation states that when the term passes the details are deleted automatically. Nothing prompts you and nobody chases you, so diarise the register's end date separately from your provider's invoice.
Can I be my own contact person if I live abroad?
No. The point of the requirement is a licensed presence in Estonia for a company whose management board address is abroad, so the person filling it cannot be you. If you move to Estonia and the company has an Estonian address, the requirement falls away instead.
Does having a contact person make me an Estonian tax resident?
No. A contact person is a postal arrangement and does not affect where you or the company are taxed. Personal tax residence depends on your own circumstances and is decided by the rules of the country you live in as much as by Estonia's — it needs local advice rather than an answer from a guide.
Related Guides
Disclaimer. General guidance, not legal advice. The requirement turns on your company's registered address and your board's residence; confirm your own position with the Centre of Registers or a licensed provider. Nothing on this page changes your personal tax residence, which depends on where you actually live.