How to pay out the dividends?

How to pay dividends from your company for the first time
Written by Dmitri Schmidt
Updated 2 years ago

Dividend payment conditions

To be eligible to pay out dividends to shareholders, the following conditions must be met:

1) the company must have a profit;

2) the company must have filed the annual report with the Estonian Commercial Register for the period, which profit  it is decided to distribute in the form of dividends;

3) the company’s  share capital must be contributed and registered;

4) the company must make a decision about paying dividends and put the decision in writing.

Only if these four conditions are met the company has the right to pay out  dividends to shareholders.

How to calculate dividends to be paid?

To figure out how much maximum dividends you can pay out without making the company a loss, you have to add up the profit/loss from the balance sheet line "Eelmiste perioodide jaotamata kasum (kahjum)" and "Aruandeaasta kasum (kahjum)" from the last annual report submitted to the Estonian Commercial Register and divide it by 1.25.

Example:

The sum "Eelmiste perioodide jaotamata kasum (kahjum)" и "Aruandeaasta kasum (kahjum)" is :

103 967 + 93442 = 197 409 euros

Divide this amount by 1.25

197 409 / 1,25 = 157 927,2 euros

This is the maximum amount of dividends you can pay out without making an additional loss to the company because of income tax.

The income tax on that amount would be:

197 409 * 20% = 39 481,8 euros

How to pay out dividends?

After calculating the dividend amount, you have to make a payment from your corporate bank account to the company shareholder's account for the desired dividend amount.

Specify "Dividends" or "Dividendid" in the payment explanation.

NB! After that, be sure to notify your accountant of the dividend payment, attaching the decision on dividend payment and the bank receipt for payment.



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