Estonia ‘e-residency’ gives Brexit Brits loophole

Tallinn: As Brits brace for the upheaval that Brexit could bring, some are turning to Estonia’s e-residency digital ID programme to keep doing business across the European Union.

Using its knack for digital innovation to capitalise on the global explosion in e-commerce, the small cyber-savvy Baltic eurozone state became the first country to offer e-residency identification cards to people worldwide in 2014.

Touted as a “trans-national government-issued digital identity”, e-residency allows users to open a business in the EU and then run it remotely with the ability to declare taxes and sign documents digitally.

It does not provide citizenship, tax residency, physical residency or the right to travel to Estonia. Applications can be made online via the www.howtostayin.eu web

€ site and cost 100 (RM508).

Just over 22,000 people from 138 countries across the globe have become e-residents so far, including around 1,200 Brits and last year’s Brexit vote triggered a boom in applications from the UK.

Before it, only three British citizens applied per week, but that shot up to over 50 in its aftermath.

There was also a 75% spike in UK traffic on the website after Prime Minister Theresa May triggered the Article 50 EU exit clause in March.

A “soft Brexit” would mean that Britain could retain access to the European single market like non-EU member Norway. But the “hard Brexit” option that has prevailed so far would see Britain leave the European single market and the customs union, creating a nightmare scenario for UK businesses as there would no longer be free movement of goods and services. — AFP