When seeking service providers or business partners in Estonia, conducting a thorough background check is highly recommended to ensure their trustworthiness and mitigate business risks. If a company lacks revenue or other financial data, carefully evaluate whether to proceed with them. Additionally, researching your competitors can provide valuable insights into your industry.
Remember, background checks work both ways. Your business partners or clients can also access these databases. Therefore, it’s crucial to maintain good standing for your company by submitting tax declarations and annual reports on time.
We have compiled an overview of the most common and useful public and private databases in Estonia, offering various business information on legal entities. Some general information inquiries are available for free, while more detailed data may require creating an account or paying a one-time fee. These fees are usually reasonable and worthwhile to avoid future issues. Typically, you will need the business name and registration number and/or personal ID number of the company owners to make inquiries.
E-Business Register
E-Business Register is a public database that contains current and historical data on legal entities. The information is free of charge and contains the company’s commercial register number, business name, address, time of initial entry, legal form, size of share capital, board members, shareholders and beneficial owners. In addition, you can view VAT information, tax debts and all submitted annual reports. Register also publishes all official notices issued to a company and business licenses, if applicable.
The Estonian Tax and Customs Board (ETCB)
The value-added tax (VAT) search tool allows you to check if a company has registered for a VAT number in Estonia. If they don’t have a VAT number, then they are not entitled to add VAT to an invoice, and the buyer can’t deduct the input VAT.
You can also use the search tool of the EU VAT number which indicates if a company is registered as a VAT payer in any of the EU countries and whether the VAT number is valid. That affects the necessary rules to be followed regarding taxation of a transaction.
Another search tool on the ETCB website is for inquiries of tax arrears. Any indicated tax arrears of the company may be a sign of solvency problems or an inability to stick to payment terms.
ETCB offers an e-service that shows the company’s tax behavior ratings. That allows you to see how the company looks in the eyes of a tax administration and if there are any shortcomings to the data.
Creditinfo
There are several private service providers who collect, analyze and systemize public information about a company.
Creditinfo Estonia provides certain data for free but credit rating and different business service are available for a fee.
Inforegister
Inforegister is similar service provider where basic data is extracted from the business register and is free of charge. It is possible to order different reports for a fee, including media reports from that cover the mentions of the company and its board members in online media publications and social media channels.
Teatmik is another widely used database for searching background information about a company. Compared to the above service providers, Teatmik publishes free of charge information about paid taxes, taxable turnover, employee count, annual reports analyses and credit rating.
Search engines
After identifying the company’s board members and related individuals from the databases, it is advisable to Google their names. This can reveal associations with other companies facing financial difficulties or provide additional valuable information.
These databases offer comprehensive and current overviews of Estonian legal entities, helping you avoid business engagements with untrustworthy companies. Using these resources can minimise business risks, but it’s also important to rely on your previous experience and intuition when making business decisions.
Furthermore, ensure your own company remains in good standing, as public business data is accessible to anyone interested.
