Estonian VAT is käibemaks. Enter a figure and this adds VAT to it or strips VAT out of it, showing the tax as its own line either way.
Calculate VAT
The rates
The standard rate is 24%, which has applied since 1 July 2025 — it was 22% before that, and 20% before 1 January 2024. Two rate rises in eighteen months is why so much published guidance is out of date.
The reduced rates are 13% and 9%, and which one applies depends on what is being sold rather than on who is selling it. The VAT page sets out what falls into each.
When you have to register
Registration becomes compulsory once taxable supply passes €40,000 in a calendar year, counted from the start of that year rather than over a rolling twelve months. You can register voluntarily below the threshold, and businesses selling mainly to other VAT-registered businesses often do, because it lets them reclaim input VAT.
An Estonian OÜ is an ordinary Estonian company here: same threshold, whoever runs it and from wherever. A foreign person with no permanent establishment in Estonia is the different case — no threshold at all, rather than a generous one.
Removing VAT is division, not subtraction
This is the one arithmetic mistake worth spelling out, because it is the reason most people reach for a calculator in the first place. To take VAT out of a gross price you divide by 1.24. You do not multiply by 0.76.
Take a gross invoice of €1,240. Dividing by 1.24 gives a net of €1,000 and VAT of €240, which is correct. Multiplying by 0.76 gives €942 and implies VAT of €298 — overstating the tax by roughly €58 on a single invoice.
The reason is that VAT is calculated on the net figure, not on the gross one. The 24% is 24% of the smaller number, so it is a smaller share of the total than the rate suggests — a shade over 19% of a gross price at the standard rate.
What you can reclaim, and the rule about cars
Registration is not only a duty; it is what lets you deduct the VAT you were charged on business purchases. Input VAT is reclaimed on the same return that declares your output VAT, and the two net off — which is why a business making large purchases can be owed money by the Tax Board rather than owing it.
The exception people trip over is passenger cars. Only 50% of the VAT on a car and on its running costs is deductible, unless the car is used exclusively for business. The restriction applies to vehicles up to 3500 kg with no more than 8 seats besides the driver's — which is to say, to almost every ordinary car. If you do claim the full amount on an exclusively-business vehicle, that declaration locks the car out of private use for 12 months, and a single private trip inside that window undoes it.
Where a refund is due, the Board transfers it within 3 working days of the decision being confirmed. The VAT page covers the exemptions, the reverse charge and the partial-deduction rules for businesses with both taxable and exempt supply.
The dates that actually matter
Everything falls on the 20th of the following month — the KMD return, the EU sales report and the payment itself all share one deadline, so there is only one date to remember rather than three.
An invoice must be issued within 7 calendar days of the supply, and by the 15th of the month after dispatch for cross-border supply.
On registration, you have 3 working days to apply once you cross the threshold, and the Board decides within 5 working days — counted from the evidence it holds, not from the date you applied, which is why a thin application takes longer than a complete one. Filing nothing for 6 consecutive periods is grounds for being struck off the register.
Six numbers people all call “the threshold”
Estonian VAT has several figures that get called the threshold, measured on four different things. Two are cliffs, two are ceilings on schemes you had to opt into, one is a reporting detail, and one is the absence of a threshold altogether.
| The number | Measured on | What crossing it does |
|---|---|---|
| €40,000 | Taxable supply, from the start of the calendar year | Registration becomes compulsory — 3 working days to apply |
| None | A foreign person with no permanent establishment here | Registration duty arises on the date taxable supply is created |
| €10,000 | Distance selling of goods to consumers, EU-wide | Above it, VAT is due in each member state or through the OSS scheme |
| €100,000 | EU-wide turnover, calendar year | Ceiling on the cross-border small business scheme — 15 working days to tell the Board |
| €200,000 | Annual turnover | Ceiling on the cash-basis special scheme |
| €1,000 | VAT-exclusive, per transaction partner, per period | Invoices with that partner must be itemised on the KMD INF annex |
Only the first counts Estonian supply — the rest are EU-wide, so a business can sit far below the Estonian threshold and above an EU one at the same time. Spend the attention on the €40,000 line, which decides whether you file at all, and the €1,000 line, which decides whether the filing you do is correct.
Registering late is backdated. Registering early is not.
This asymmetry is the one that costs money. Cross €40,000 and register late, and the Board registers you retroactively from the day you crossed it — you owe VAT on everything supplied since, whether or not you charged it. Voluntary registration works the other way: it takes effect from the day the Board receives the application, and is never backdated.
Registering voluntarily
You must prove business is under way or planned:
- A business plan
- Preliminary contracts
- Lease, procurement, supply or works contracts
- The objects of the work to be done
And what follows
The mechanics:
- The Board has 5 working days — counted from receiving the evidence, not the application
- Effective from the date of receipt, or a later date you name
- It can be refused if you neither carry on business nor are starting one
That clock is worth reading twice: filing an application without the evidence does not start it. Registering voluntarily is often right for a business selling to other businesses, because you cannot reclaim input VAT until you are registered.
Whether you add VAT at all depends on who is buying
The calculator adds Estonian VAT because that is what a domestic invoice does. Across a border the general B2B rule puts the supply in the customer’s country, so there is nothing to add and the customer accounts for it under the reverse charge.
| You sell a service to | Estonian VAT? | On the invoice | On the VD report? |
|---|---|---|---|
| A VAT-registered business elsewhere in the EU | No — 0% | “Reverse charge” | Yes |
| A business outside the EU | No — 0% | Place of supply outside Estonia | No |
| A consumer anywhere | Yes, normally | Ordinary invoice | No |
| An Estonian customer of any kind | Yes | Ordinary invoice | No |
The words “Reverse charge”must appear on the invoice — not “VAT 0%”, not “exempt”. The notation is prescribed, one of the 10 required particulars rather than a stylistic choice. Goods are stricter: intra-Community supply is zero-rated only if you are certain the buyer is VAT-registered in another member state, both VAT numbers appear on the invoice, and you hold documents proving the goods physically moved. Selling goods to consumers across the EU runs on its own €10,000 threshold, above which the OSS scheme covers every member state on one return.
The scheme that stops you paying VAT before your customer pays you
Ordinary Estonian VAT is accounted for when the supply happens, not when you are paid. That is invisible to a shop and expensive to a business invoicing on thirty or sixty days: the return and the payment land on the 20th regardless, so you remit the VAT on an invoice before the customer has settled it — a working-capital problem created by the accounting basis rather than by the rate.
Estonia publishes a cash-basis special scheme for exactly this, available on notification under €200,000 of annual turnover. Nothing about the 24% changes and the filing dates do not move; what moves is whenthe liability arises. It sits among the Board’s special provisions beside the cross-border small business scheme, and the two are separate elections.
What being registered actually costs in filings
Below the threshold, a small Estonian company’s only hard deadline in the year is the annual report. Above it, the same company has twelve filings a year with a payment attached to each, due whether or not the month produced any trade.
| Every month | What it is |
|---|---|
| The KMD return | For the period just ended — filed even in a month with no sales and no purchases |
| The KMD INF annex | Part A for sales, part B for purchases, itemised per partner from €1,000 VAT-exclusive |
| The VD report | Only if you made zero-rated intra-Community supplies |
| The payment | Same date. There is no separate payment deadline — interest runs from the 21st |
| A payroll declaration | Not a VAT filing, but the same rhythm: due in any month a salary or board member fee was paid |
No law requires an accountant — the obligation is that the filing happens, and you can file in e-MTA, through accounting software over X-tee, or at a service bureau. What an accountant sells is deadline discipline. On published prices, the e-Residency programme’s own estimate puts accounting from €50 a month; standalone managed accounting starts at €135; and a subscription bundling accounting, the annual report and an address runs €89–€99. All quoted excluding VAT.
VAT when you are not a company
An Estonian business need not be a company, and the four ways one person can be paid for their own work meet VAT differently — one of them can never meet it at all.
| Route | Can it be VAT-registered? | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| OÜ, a company | Yes | Registers on the €40,000 threshold like any other Estonian business |
| FIE, a sole trader | Yes | Same threshold, same monthly filing — a FIE with real turnover crosses it exactly as a company does |
| Entrepreneur account | No — not at all | You may not hold one and be VAT-registered. Its €40,000 annual ceiling coincides with the threshold, so the question never arises |
| A service contract in your own name | Not as such | The payer runs the taxes; you are not carrying on business in your own right |
That coincidence of numbers is deliberate: the account is closed to VAT-registered people by design, so the point at which VAT becomes your problem is the point at which you have to leave it anyway. At steady turnover the threshold is €3,333 a month.
Neutral for business customers, a price rise for consumers
Invoice VAT-registered businesses and adding 24% costs them nothing: they deduct it. Sell to consumers and the same 24% either comes out of your margin or goes onto your price — so two self-employed people with identical turnover experience registration completely differently, depending only on who buys from them.
Where to go next
VAT in full
Exemptions, the reverse charge, the cross-border small-business scheme and how to deregister — everything this calculator assumes.
🏢Company formation cost
What an OÜ costs to start and run, including when VAT registration becomes worth doing voluntarily.
🌍Tax for e-residents
Why an Estonian company run from abroad still faces the same threshold, and where permanent establishment changes it.
🧾Self-employment
FIE versus OÜ, and which one reaches the VAT threshold sooner on the same revenue.
€All Estonian taxes
Income, social, land and corporate — how VAT sits alongside the rest.
📊All calculators
Salary, hourly, student and investment — all reading the same dated constants.
Need an English-speaking accountant?
Estonian tax is simple until it isn't — an OÜ taking money out, a VAT registration, or income from more than one country. Get matched with an accountant who works in English and knows the rules for foreigners.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which rate should I use?
24% is the standard rate. 13% covers accommodation and 9% covers publications, press and medicines — both were raised on 1 January 2025.
What is the difference between adding and removing VAT?
Adding takes a net price to gross. Removing takes a gross price back to net, which is not the same arithmetic and is where people go wrong by subtracting 24% from the gross.
Do I have to register for VAT?
Above €40,000 of taxable supply in a calendar year, yes. A foreign person with no permanent establishment in Estonia has no threshold at all and may register voluntarily.
Does this handle the reverse charge?
No. Where the reverse charge applies, the supplier charges no VAT and the customer accounts for it — the VAT page covers when that happens.
Are the reduced rates ever optional?
No. The rate follows the goods or service, not the seller's preference.
How current is the 24%?
It has applied since July 2025 and is read from the Tax and Customs Board's own page.
I am invoicing a business in another EU country. Do I add Estonian VAT?
Normally no, because the general B2B rule puts the place of supply of a service in the customer's country rather than in Estonia. You apply 0%, charge no Estonian VAT, and the customer accounts for it under the reverse charge. Two details decide whether that goes smoothly. The words "Reverse charge" must appear on the invoice — not "VAT 0%", not "exempt", the notation is prescribed — and the supply goes on the VD intra-Community report. A business customer outside the EU is also outside Estonian VAT, but does not go on the VD report. A consumer anywhere, and an Estonian customer of any kind, is charged Estonian VAT as normal. For goods rather than services, intra-Community supply is zero-rated only if you are certain the buyer is VAT-registered in another member state, both VAT numbers are on the invoice, and you hold the documents proving the goods physically moved.
Is the VAT return monthly or quarterly, and when is it due?
Monthly. There is no quarterly option in Estonia. The KMD return, the VD intra-Community report and the payment itself all fall on the 20th of the month following the taxable period, so there is one date rather than three. The KMD INF annex is filed monthly alongside the return, and invoices must be itemised on it wherever the VAT-exclusive total per transaction partner reaches €1,000 — that threshold is per partner across the whole period, not per invoice, which is what catches a business running many small invoices to one client. You file in e-MTA, through accounting software over X-tee, or at a service bureau.
What happens if I file or pay late?
Late VAT carries interest at 0.06% a day, which the Tax and Customs Board itself converts to 21.9% a year. It runs from the day after the due date — so it starts on the 21st, not from an assessment landing months later. Silence has a second consequence: filing no VAT returns for 6 consecutive taxable periods is grounds for the Board to strike you off the VAT register on its own initiative, which is six months of missed returns rather than a warning shot.
I crossed the threshold months ago and never registered. What now?
Register, and expect the registration to be backdated. Compulsory registration takes effect retroactively from the day you crossed €40,000, and VAT is owed on everything supplied since, whether or not you charged it — which is the part that hurts, because a consumer who has already paid an invoice will not be sending you the difference. Voluntary registration behaves in the opposite direction and is never backdated to help you. The deadline that was missed is 3 working days from crossing the threshold, and it runs from an invoice you issued rather than from a letter arriving. Interest runs at 0.06% a day from the day after each return was due.
Can I stop paying VAT before my customers have paid me?
Yes, through a scheme almost nothing in English mentions. Ordinary Estonian VAT is accounted for when the supply happens rather than when you are paid, so a business invoicing on thirty or sixty days remits the tax before the customer settles. The cash-basis special scheme is available on notification under €200,000 of annual turnover, and it moves the moment the liability arises to the moment the money arrives. Nothing else changes: the rate is still 24%, and the return, the annex and the payment still fall on the 20th. It sits beside the cross-border small business scheme among the Board's special provisions, and the two are separate elections — joining one does not join you to the other.
How do I get out of the VAT register?
You apply to the Tax and Customs Board, showing that turnover with an Estonian place of supply has not exceeded €40,000 in the current or previous calendar year. Three things about the exit are not obvious. Deletion is not clean: on deletion you pay VAT on goods you still hold and whose input VAT you deducted when you acquired them, so stock and equipment carry a bill on the way out. It takes effect on the date in the Board's decision, not the date you applied. And there is a minimum period, but only for some — a person operating from another EU member state must have been registered for at least 2 calendar years before applying to be deleted, while an Estonian business has no general minimum.