EU Incorporation Cost Index 2026

Most country comparisons rank the formation fee: what the state charges to register a company. That number is almost irrelevant. It is paid once, it is small, and in several countries it is deliberately kept low to attract founders. The cost that decides whether a jurisdiction is cheap or expensive is the one that comes back every year: accounting, annual reporting, and the compliance work a company cannot skip.

The EU Incorporation Cost Index ranks all 27 member states by what the first year costs in total: state formation cost plus twelve months of estimated accounting and compliance for a simple single-founder company.

The index: all 27 EU countries, ranked

The dataset is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: cite "EU Inc Guide" with a link to this page. Journalists and researchers can download the CSV directly.

What the numbers include

Year-1 total = formation cost + one year of compliance. The formation figure covers state fees plus standard service costs to get a private limited company registered. The compliance figure is an estimate of unavoidable annual costs (bookkeeping, annual report filing, tax filings) for a simple service company with one founder, no employees, and no cross-border VAT complexity.

Three things are deliberately excluded, because they vary too much by situation to put one honest number on:

• Share capital requirements. Germany's GmbH needs €12,500 paid in at formation; an Estonian OÜ needs €0.01. Capital stays your money, so it is not a cost, but it is cash you must have.
• Notary and translation variance. Civil-law countries (Germany, Austria, Belgium) add notary fees that scale with share capital and vary by region.
• Payroll, VAT registration, and sector licensing. Once you hire or sell physical goods cross-border, costs depend on what you do, not where you are.

The result is a like-for-like baseline: the cheapest version of a legitimate company in each country, run by the book.

Five things the data says

1. The formation fee is a marketing number. Formation runs €200 to €1,500, paid once. Compliance runs €1,200 to €6,000, paid every year. A founder choosing between countries on the formation fee is comparing the cheapest part of the decision and ignoring the part that compounds.

2. The East-West gap is worth about €3,000 a year. The nine cheapest entries are all Central and Eastern European or Baltic states. The gap is not bureaucratic efficiency. It is accountant hourly rates. The same annual report that costs €1,200 in Tallinn costs €5,000 in Munich.

3. Cheap to run is not the same as low tax. Slovakia (21% corporate tax) and Hungary (9%) cost the same €2,350 to open and run. Romania pairs the lowest running cost with a 1% micro-company rate below €100K revenue, on paper the standout of the entire index. The catch is banking access, which is where the spreadsheet stops and the full 27-country comparison becomes relevant.

4. Estonia does not win on price; it wins on everything around the price. At €1,465 it is €65 behind Romania, but it forms a company in 2 business days, runs fully remotely through e-Residency, and charges 0% corporate tax while profits stay in the company. The €65 premium buys the EU's only genuinely remote-first company infrastructure.

5. The expensive end is expensive on purpose. Germany, France, and Italy sell access to large domestic markets. Luxembourg and Malta sell holding and fund structures that pay off at a scale most founders never reach. A solo consultant paying Luxembourg's €7,500 to invoice clients is buying nothing beyond what Romania sells for €1,400.

Methodology

The index is built from the same country dataset that powers the 27-country comparison and the country selector tool. Figures are reviewed against official fee schedules and provider pricing, and the index is regenerated whenever the underlying dataset changes.

If you only care about the lowest possible cost, the cheapest EU company formation guide walks through the bottom of this table in more detail.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest EU country to start a company in 2026?

Romania, at roughly €1,400 for the first year (€200 formation, ~€1,200 annual compliance), with a 1% corporate rate for micro-companies under €100K revenue. Estonia is €65 more and trades that small premium for 2-day formation, full remote management via e-Residency, and 0% tax on retained profits.

Why rank countries by first-year cost instead of formation fee?

Because the formation fee is paid once while compliance costs repeat every year. Over five years, a "cheap" €200 formation in a €4,000-per-year country costs €20,200; a €500 formation in a €1,500-per-year country costs €8,000. The recurring number dominates every horizon longer than a few months.

What does the year-1 total include and exclude?

Included: state formation cost and twelve months of estimated bookkeeping, annual reporting, and tax-filing costs for a simple single-founder company. Excluded: share capital (it remains your money), notary variance, payroll, VAT registration, and sector licenses, because those depend on your situation rather than the country baseline.

Is the cheapest country also the best country?

No. The index measures cost, not banking access, reputation, or tax treaties. Romania tops the cost ranking but scores weaker on banking; the Netherlands costs 3x more but has some of the strongest banking and treaty infrastructure in the EU. Cost is one input. The 27-country comparison weighs all four.

Can I reuse this data?

Yes. The dataset is licensed CC BY 4.0: free to republish, chart, or build on, with attribution to "EU Inc Guide" and a link to this page. The CSV download includes the license note.

How often is the index updated?

The index regenerates from the underlying dataset whenever rates or costs change, including corporate tax changes, state fee revisions, and shifts in typical accounting prices. Last revision: 11 June 2026.