Accountants and company formation in Lithuania

Setting up a company in Lithuania

You can set up a company in Lithuania from abroad: foreign individuals and foreign companies may found a private limited company, the UAB, and the register’s online system works in English. The process breaks into a few clear stages: pick the legal form, decide how to sign, secure an address in Lithuania, pay in the capital and file with the Register of Legal Entities. This guide takes those stages in order, with the official figures, the 2026 tax rates and the filings that follow registration.

Set up a company in Lithuania: the stages at a glance

1. Choose the legal form. For most founders from abroad that is a UAB; a small partnership (MB) or a branch of your existing company are the alternatives.
2. Reserve a name, if you want to hold it before filing.
3. Decide how you will sign. Online with a Lithuanian e-resident card or an EU electronic ID, or on paper through a notary.
4. Arrange the registered office. It must be in Lithuania, and the owner of the premises gives written consent.
5. Pay in the share capital to an accumulative bank account.
6. File the application with the Register of Legal Entities, kept by the Centre of Registers.
7. Report the shareholders and beneficial owners, then register for VAT when you must and set up bookkeeping.

Foreign founders and Lithuanian companies

Yes. The Centre of Registers states that the founders of a UAB may be foreign natural or legal persons as well as Lithuanian ones. Invest Lithuania, the state investment agency, adds that a UAB has no residence requirements for the general manager or for its other bodies.

Two things do tie the company to the country. The registered office has to be in Lithuania, and the people who sign need a way to sign that the register accepts. Where you live affects a third point that is separate from the company itself: whether you may stay and work in Lithuania. That has its own rules, covered further down.

Choose the legal form: UAB, MB or branch

The fees are those of the Centre of Registers’ registration service; the sections below link each figure to its source.

UAB

Invest Lithuania describes the UAB as the most common form among foreign-based enterprises. Its authorised capital must be not less than one thousand euros, and the register’s rules name two bodies it must always have: the general meeting of shareholders and the manager. A board or supervisory board is optional. Shares make it easy to add investors later, and banks and partners abroad tend to recognise the form.

MB

The small partnership is a lighter structure set up under the Law on Small Partnerships. It can also be founded online, provided every founder holds a qualified electronic signature. The register gives one practical tip: choose the version with a single manager rather than one run by the members’ meeting, because some state systems only recognise a manager. Ask an adviser whether the MB suits your plans before you rule out the UAB, since the rules on members differ.

Branch of a foreign company

A branch lets an existing company trade in Lithuania without a new subsidiary. It is not a separate legal entity, so the parent company is liable for its obligations. If the parent is from outside the EEA, at least one person acting for the branch should live in Lithuania. The register fee for a branch or representative office is €41.75.

Step 1: Reserve the company name

Reservation is optional, but it stops someone else taking the name while your documents are prepared. The name must not match a registered company, a name already reserved or a registered trademark, unless the trademark owner consents. The register decides within 1 working day and charges €6.75 for the temporary entry. According to Invest Lithuania, a reserved name is held for 6 months.

Step 2: Decide how you will sign

This choice shapes the rest of the process.

• Online, in the Self Service of the Centre of Registers. A foreigner logs in with a Lithuanian e-resident card or an EU electronic identification under eIDAS. The system then generates the deed of incorporation and the articles from model templates, in Lithuanian and English if you fill in the application in English, and every founder signs them with a qualified electronic signature.
• Through a notary. If any signatory cannot sign electronically, the documents go through a notary in Lithuania, who prepares and submits them. Founders abroad often give a power of attorney to a representative for this route. Documents issued in a country that joined the 1961 Hague Convention need an apostille.

Documents in another language need a translation signed by the translator.

Step 3: Arrange the registered office

The registered office must be in Lithuania. The owner of the premises, or every co-owner, signs a consent to let the company register there. In the online route that consent is generated by the system and signed electronically. Founders without premises usually rent an address from a service provider; see the firms offering a virtual office in Lithuania.

Step 4: Pay in the share capital

Capital for a new UAB goes into an accumulative account, a bank account used only for the initial contributions. When you file online, the account is opened electronically by choosing a bank in the Self Service. The register’s Q&A adds that the account may also be held at a bank in another EU country, in which case a bank certificate proves the payment.

Each shareholder’s initial contribution must be at least ¼ of the amount payable for the shares. Invest Lithuania describes the rest as payable within 12 months. Once the company exists, the accumulative account becomes its ordinary account, or you move to another bank. Expect the bank to ask about the shareholders, the source of the money and the planned business.

Step 5: File with the Register of Legal Entities

The application, signed by the founders, goes to the Register of Legal Entities. When the documents arrive through the Self Service, the register decides within 1 working day; paper filings take up to 3 working days. The fee for a UAB is €14.02 online and €30.83 by post or at a customer service unit. The clock starts once the documents are complete and the fee is paid, so gaps in the file, not the register, are what usually cause delay.

Step 6: Report shareholders and beneficial owners

Two information systems sit beside the register, and both are filings you make, not optional extras.

• JADIS holds participant data. A UAB reports its shareholders here. For a foreign individual, the system asks for a copy of the passport or identity document; for a foreign company, an extract from its home register, legalised or with an apostille. Changes are registered within 3 working days.
• JANGIS holds the list of beneficial owners. All legal entities incorporated in Lithuania, with a narrow exception for state-owned ones, submit it, and the manager is responsible for doing so.

Tax registration and VAT

After registration the company deals with the State Tax Inspectorate (VMI) for its taxes. Ask your accountant how the tax registration and the VAT number request work for your company, since the steps depend on the activity.

VAT registration depends on turnover. The European Commission lists Lithuania’s national annual threshold as 45 000 EUR: below it a small business need not register for VAT or file VAT returns. Lithuania applies no transitional period, so once the threshold is passed during the year, registration follows straight away. The small-business exemption is optional, so a company can also register before it reaches the threshold, which can make sense when its customers are VAT-registered businesses. For the details, see VAT in Lithuania.

How a Lithuanian company is taxed

The Seimas changed the corporate income tax rates from 2026.

The Seimas press release of 17 June 2025 sets the standard and reduced rates at 17 % and 7 % respectively. The 0 % period for newly registered companies now runs two years instead of one, and the old cap of 10 employees has gone. The criterion the release names is a taxable income of no more than EUR 300,000 during a tax period; further conditions in the law decide whether a given company qualifies, so check them with an accountant before relying on a reduced rate.

On VAT, Invest Lithuania gives the standard rate as 21%. From 1 January 2026 the two reduced rates are 5 % and 12 %: books and non-periodical publications fell to 5 %, while accommodation, passenger transport and cultural events moved to 12 %.

Living and working in Lithuania as a non-EU founder

Owning a Lithuanian company does not by itself give you the right to live in Lithuania. Citizens of countries outside the EU and EEA who plan to move need a residence permit, and the Migration Department sets the conditions for permits linked to running a business. Check the current requirements with the Migration Department or an adviser before you plan around them.

One official route is aimed at founders. Startup Visa Lithuania, run by Startup Lithuania, is for innovative non-EU entrepreneurs and offers a temporary residence permit for 2 years, with a chance to extend it to 5 years, plus permits for family members. Firms that handle permits are listed under residency and visas in Lithuania.

After registration: running the company

From the first month the company keeps books, pays taxes and files returns, and it has to report to two places.

• The tax authority: corporate income tax, VAT returns once registered, and payroll taxes and social insurance contributions when the company pays salaries.
• The Register of Legal Entities: the annual financial statements, submitted electronically, plus any change to the manager, the articles, the address or the shareholders.

Many foreign owners hand this work to a local firm. The directory lists firms for accounting, tax compliance, payroll and, where size or investors require it, audit.

Mistakes foreign founders make

• Planning the online route without a working signature. A Lithuanian e-resident card or a recognised EU electronic ID has to be ready before you start; otherwise the file goes through a notary.
• Leaving the address to the end. No registration without a registered office in Lithuania and the owner’s signed consent.
• Confusing the company with a residence permit. They are separate procedures under separate rules.
• Assuming the 0 % or 7 % rate applies. The income criterion is only one condition; get it confirmed.
• Forgetting JADIS and JANGIS. Shareholder and beneficial owner data are filings, and changes must be reported too.
• Unapostilled documents. Papers from abroad without an apostille or legalisation get sent back.

Finding help in Lithuania

Invest Lithuania informs, connects and supports foreign companies free of charge, which makes it a good first call for larger investments. For the formation itself and the years after it, Accountanty lists 121 firms in Lithuania: 96 accounting firms, 20 corporate services providers and 5 law firms. Of these, 114 offer company formation, 41 focus on foreign clients, 67 work in English and 33 in Russian. The firms are based in Vilnius (80) and Kaunas (41).

How to compare formation providers, what a quote should include and what to ask is covered on our page on company formation in Lithuania, and firms used to working for clients abroad are gathered under accountants for foreign clients in Lithuania. When you know your plan, one free quote request is enough: Accountanty reviews it and forwards it to firms that can help you set up a company in Lithuania.