“In addition to more effective control, the purpose of submitting the data is to make it easier in the future for private persons to declare income earned through platforms. We plan to start pre-filling income tax returns with the collected platform income data, as we do now with salary data,” said Raigo Uukkivi, Director General of the ETCB.
Preliminary data shows that a very large part of them fulfilled their declaration and tax liabilities by using entrepreneur accounts.
“It is easiest and most convenient for private persons operating on platforms to use entrepreneur accounts to fulfil their tax liabilities. Fees for provided services are received on the entrepreneur account, and taxes are paid automatically. Due to its simplicity and convenience, the use of entrepreneur accounts is growing, and in the last three years, the number of users and the amounts received on the account have doubled. Data for the first quarter of this year shows that growth could continue at the same pace this year as well,” added Uukkivi.
If income is received on the account of a private person, it must be indicated on the income tax return of a natural person. Although the deadline for submitting income tax returns has already passed, the board advises people to check again whether income received through platforms was indicated and to add it on the tax return, if necessary. If there are inconsistencies in the data submitted by the platforms and the numbers provided in a person's income tax return or entrepreneur account report, the ETCB will contact the person. It must also be considered that the ETCB may retroactively require correction of tax returns within up to three years or determine tax liability itself, but then with interest.
The data is provided about taxable persons operating on platforms both in Estonia and other European Union Member States. “We forward the information received about taxpayers of other Member States to the tax authorities of the respective countries. On the same principle, other Member States also forward the information collected from platform operators about Estonian taxable persons to us,” Uukkivi explained.
Platform operators are obliged to submit information to the ETCB about sellers or service providers who perform at least one of the following activities for a fee through the platform:
- leasing or renting out immovable property or part thereof, for example, short-term rental of a dwelling through AirBnB;
- provision of time- or task-based service, for example, providing massage services through Stebby;
- transfer of a thing, for example, selling handmade jewellery in Yaga;
- leasing or renting out means of transport, for example, renting a car through Autolevi.
