Lithuania company formation in 2026: EUR 30 to register, 17% tax and the fintech reason people come

Lithuania spent a decade turning itself into the European Union's licensing hub for electronic money institutions and payment firms, and it worked: a large share of Europe's fintech runs through Vilnius. That is the real reason to look at a Lithuanian company, and it is a much better reason than the tax rate.

Here is the short version. A Lithuanian UAB is registered in about three to five business days at the registry, or roughly one to two weeks end to end once KYC, translations and banking are included. Minimum capital is EUR 1,000, of which at least 25% — EUR 250 — must be paid up before registration. The state fee is EUR 30.83. Corporate income tax rose to 17% on 1 January 2026, with a 7% reduced rate for small companies of fewer than ten staff and turnover below EUR 300,000, and 0% for the first two profitable periods for qualifying newly formed companies. No resident director is required.

How to register a UAB

1. Reserve the name and prepare the articles of association.
2. Pay up at least EUR 250 of the EUR 1,000 capital.
3. File with the State Centre of Registers — online filing requires a Lithuanian qualified electronic signature; without one, a notarised and apostilled power of attorney to a local agent is the route.
4. Register for VAT once taxable turnover exceeds EUR 45,000 in any twelve months, or on intra-EU acquisitions.

The EUR 30.83 state fee is among the lowest in the European Union. It is also, as usual, not the cost — the local agent, translations and apostilles are.

The rates changed in January, and old figures are everywhere

Corporate income tax went from 16% to 17% on 1 January 2026, and the small-company rate from 5% to 7%. Both changes are recent enough that a great deal of published material still quotes the old numbers.

The reliefs are worth understanding properly. The 7% rate requires fewer than ten staff and turnover below EUR 300,000. Qualifying newly formed companies pay 0% for their first two profitable periods, which is a genuine advantage for a startup that will take a while to reach profit.

Fintech is the actual proposition

The Bank of Lithuania has run the most accessible EMI and payment-institution licensing regime in the EU for years, and the ecosystem around it — compliance staff, correspondent relationships, specialist advisers — is deeper in Vilnius than anywhere comparable. For a payments or fintech business seeking an EU licence, Lithuania is a serious first choice on those grounds alone.

For an ordinary trading company the case is weaker. At 17%, Lithuania is no longer notably cheap: Hungary charges 9%, Estonia charges nothing until distribution, and Ireland charges 12.5% with a deeper professional market.

Banking, and the substance expectation

High-street banks apply stringent KYC to non-resident-owned Lithuanian companies, and many founders end up banking through a licensed EMI instead — which is a slightly circular outcome in a country whose main export is EMI licences.

Genuine local substance is increasingly expected, both by banks and by tax authorities. And a low effective rate can trigger controlled-foreign-company or place-of-effective-management taxation in the founder's home country, which is the same warning that applies to every low-tax EU jurisdiction and is ignored just as often.

Audit and directors

There is no residency or nationality requirement for directors or shareholders. Audit is only mandatory where two of three thresholds are exceeded — assets over EUR 1.8 million, net turnover over EUR 3.5 million, or more than 50 employees — and always for regulated financial firms. Most small companies are exempt.

Who this is actually for

A fintech or payments business that wants an EU licence and the ecosystem that supports one. A startup that will benefit from two profitable periods at 0%. A small company under ten staff that fits the 7% band.

For everything else, the neighbours make a better case: Estonia for a reinvesting digital business, Poland or the Czech Republic for scale and market access, Hungary for the lowest headline rate in the bloc. Lithuania is a specialist jurisdiction that happens to also be cheap to enter.