Tax on Foreign Income in Estonia

Either: your place of residence is in Estonia, which carries no day count at all, or you stay at least 183 days over any twelve consecutive calendar months rather than a calendar year. Residency runs from the first certified date of arrival to the day after the date of leaving. Entry in the Population Register is not one of the tests.

Yes. A resident declares all income derived outside Estonia, and the Tax and Customs Board is explicit that it is declared here even where the tax was already withheld or paid abroad. There is no minimum threshold. Relief removes the tax, not the declaration.

Both, depending on the income rather than the country. Credit is the general method: tax paid abroad is set against the Estonian charge, and where the foreign tax was lower the difference is payable here. Exemption applies where a rule provides for it — salary meeting the 183-day conditions, and a foreign dividend already taxed on the underlying profit or withheld on the dividend.

Only if all three conditions hold: at least 183 days worked in the foreign state over twelve consecutive months, the income taxable there, and that taxation documented. It is then exempt but still declared. A shorter posting is taxed in both states with the foreign tax credited, and the difference payable here if the foreign tax was lower.

It is declared in Estonia. Where foreign tax was paid the credit method applies; where it was not, the rent is charged here in full at 22%. The 20% deemed-expense deduction that makes Estonian residential rent effectively 17.6% does not travel abroad.

Not where income tax has already been paid on the profit the dividend came out of, or withheld on the dividend itself — then it is exempt here, though still declared. It need not be you who suffered the withholding. A dividend taxed nowhere is chargeable in full at 22%.

Taxable in Estonia as a starting point, and it must be declared. Pensions are one of the categories where a double taxation agreement most often changes the answer, sometimes reserving the pension to the paying state. Where it was taxed abroad, the credit method sets that tax against the Estonian charge on a certificate from the foreign tax authority.

The certificate of residency used to claim a treaty rate. A non-resident receiving an Estonian payment gives the payer a certificate approved by their own foreign tax authority on form TM3, or a foreign certificate with the same data; without it Estonian domestic law applies. A natural person's is generally valid 12 months unless it states otherwise and covers all payments by all payers. An Estonian resident proving residency abroad uses one issued by the Estonian Tax and Customs Board.

70 concluded, of which 66 are in force, according to the Ministry of Finance that negotiates them. A treaty allocates taxing rights, eliminates double taxation, gives relief through credits, exemptions or reduced withholding rates on dividends, interest and royalties, and for a few income types assigns the income to one state outright. Formalities differ by country — some apply the rate at payment, others withhold in full and require a procedure before any refund — so check the paying state's rules first.

Only on income derived in Estonia, and usually with tax withheld at source, in which case the withholding is final and there is nothing to file. Salary for work performed in Estonia and rent from Estonian property are withheld at 22%, and a gain on transferring Estonian property is charged at 22% on the gain. A service fee to a non-resident legal person, royalties, and the performance fee of an entertainer or athlete are withheld at 10%; a service fee to a legal person in a non-cooperative tax jurisdiction carries the general 22%. Dividends to a non-resident have carried no withholding since 2025.

Form A1 for taxable Estonian income — employment, services, rent, dividends, pensions — on which no income tax was withheld; form E1 for business income; form V1 for a gain on transferring property in Estonia, which is also how a non-resident carries forward a loss on the transfer of securities. The return is due by 30 April of the following year and the tax by 1 October of the year of submission. Where the recipient has a registered permanent establishment in Estonia the payer withholds nothing and the establishment declares the profit on annex 3 of form TSD. A non-resident of the EEA may deduct only by declaring worldwide income, and one from outside the EEA cannot deduct at all, so the €700 basic exemption is not something to assume.

No. It confers no tax residency of any kind and does not exempt anyone from taxation elsewhere — an e-resident is a non-resident for tax purposes and pays Estonian income tax only on income received in Estonia. Your Estonian company has its own position, separate from yours. One Estonian-source payment reaches you wherever you live: a board member fee carries 33% social tax and 22% income tax.

On residency first. While you are a non-resident, work performed outside Estonia creates no Estonian liability. Once you become resident — 183 days over twelve consecutive months, or a place of residence here — Estonia taxes your worldwide income including that salary. The mirror case: a non-resident paid by an Estonian employer for work done in Estonia is charged here regardless of the number of days.

Estonia has no automatic late-filing penalty. Interest runs at 0.06% a day on unpaid tax from the day after it was due, which the Board annualises to 21.9% a year, accruing whether or not anyone has written to you and stopping when the tax is paid rather than when the return is filed. Income earned abroad makes filing compulsory, so an omission is a failure to file, and any overdue liability is settled out of money owed back to you before a refund reaches your account.