Employment Register has added 9,000 taxpayers in under 6 months
The Employment Register, established on July 1, has increased the number of legally employed people with tax liability by 9,000 individuals in Estonia. However, the majority of these 9,000 workers earn minimum wage.
"Whereas the first objective of monitoring the employee registration is to make sure that all workers are indeed registered, we are turning an increasing amount of attention to making sure that the declared pay is in accordance with reality," said Kaido Lemendik, head of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board inspection department.
By the end of November, the Tax and Customs Board had made queries about 13,000 employees, 1,300 of whom were not registered.
The vast majority of the unregistered employees worked either in the building sector (407), catering (141) or retail (138).
In October, the average wage of an unregistered worker was 350 euros.
According to the employment register, there were 578,402 people employed in Estonia on November 24. They worked for 69,822 different employers.
In Estonia, all natural and legal entities are required to register their employees with the Estonian Tax and Customs Board. The resulting employment register is used for granting health insurance benefits, unemployment allowances and other unemployment insurance benefits, and for monitoring tax liabilities. The Police and Border Guard Board also uses the data to exercise supervisory control over the working conditions of foreigners. For more information click here.
Editor: O. Kahu, M. Oll