Due diligence on an Estonian supplier: what public data can and cannot tell you
Last updated 2026-09-20
Before you sign with an Estonian supplier, public data answers a set of basic questions: whether the company exists, whether it is active, whether it is growing and whether it pays its taxes. It cannot answer who owns it or whether it will deliver. This guide separates the two lists.
What public data can tell you
| Question | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Does the company exist under this registry code? | The company page, and the official register through the registry code link. |
| Is it entered as active? | The status badge. This site publishes only companies entered as active. |
| What legal form is it? | The legal form chip. The legal forms guide explains liability. |
| Where is it registered? | County and settlement in the header. Street addresses appear only for an AS and for companies with at least 10 employees. |
| Is the business growing or shrinking? | The revenue chart and table, 2019 to 2025 where the reports exist. |
| Is it profitable and financed by its owners? | Operating profit, net profit and the equity ratio. |
| Does it have staff? | FTE in the annual report and the quarterly employee counts. |
| Is it trading now? | The latest quarters of taxes paid and turnover. |
| Does it pay taxes regularly? | The quarterly table. Look for payments in every quarter. |
What it cannot tell you
- Who owns it. Ownership and beneficial ownership are not part of the data this site uses. The register stopped releasing beneficial owners' data as open data in July 2026. For ownership, ask the supplier for documents and use the official register.
- Who may sign for it. The board members and the right of representation are in the register. This site does not show them. Before you sign a contract, check the signatory in an official extract.
- Whether it has debts to tax authorities or creditors. Quarterly data shows taxes paid, and does not show taxes owed. This site does not use the board's list of tax debtors.
- Court cases, insolvency filings and enforcement. These sit in other registers.
- Sanctions status. Screen the company and its owners against the EU sanctions list yourself.
- Quality and reliability. A company can have clean figures and deliver late. Ask for references.
- Audited numbers. The figures are as filed. An audit is not shown here, and small companies are often not audited.
A checklist
- Confirm identity. Take the registry code from the supplier's contract or invoice, not from a search result. Open the company page by code. Compare the name, legal form and county.
- Confirm the VAT number. If the supplier invoices with an Estonian VAT number, check it in the European Commission's VIES service.
- Read the age of the data. Check the latest report year. If it is more than a year old and the six-month filing deadline has passed, ask why.
- Read the trend, not one year. Look at the whole revenue series. A single strong year followed by a fall deserves a question. So does a steady fall.
- Compare the sources. Compare the last four quarters of turnover with the latest annual revenue. Compare the quarterly employee count with the FTE. Large, lasting gaps call for an explanation, as the quarterly data guide describes.
- Check size against the deal. A contract worth more than the supplier's yearly revenue needs security, such as a guarantee or payment on delivery.
- Order official documents. For anything material, get an extract from the e-Business Register and ask the supplier for a certificate of no tax arrears from the tax board.
- Screen. Run the company and its owners through sanctions and adverse-media checks that your compliance rules require.
Signals worth a question
- Negative equity, shown with a minus sign on the balance sheet table.
- Revenue that falls for several years together with fewer employees.
- Quarters with no tax payments in the middle of an active year.
- A latest report that is more than a year old.
- Turnover in the quarterly file that is far above the annual revenue, or far below it, over several years.
- A very young company asking for a large credit line.
None of these proves a problem. Each is a reason to ask. Companies also have reasons for all of them: a new owner, a change of financial year, a one-off project.
The limits of this site
The data here is a republication of open data. It is not a credit report, a rating or a legal opinion, and the calculated ratios are not assessments. Theterms of use state this in full. Where a decision carries real money or legal risk, buy a professional report or take legal advice, and use the figures here to prepare the questions.