Finance committee: Sharing economy workers must file income data
Participants in the sharing economy must file the earnings and share the submitted information about their income with the Tax and Customs Board, the Riigikogu's finance committee said on Wednesday.
It was found during a discussion by the Riigikogu finance committee with representatives of the Tax and Customs Board on Wednesday that for ensuring transparent competition and preventing tax evasion, "As things stand, information is forwarded to the Tax and Customs Board only about those persons who have themselves consented to the forwarding of data by the platform operator," Kokk said.
He said legislative amendments were being discussed that would have platform operators forward to the Tax and Customs Board information about all persons who earned income on their platform without having to ask the person for consent.
The Isamaa MP explained that in the Estonian context, people who have earned income would then only have to enter their personal identification code and the amount of personal income earned during the year.
"The date of filing would be February 1 every year the latest for the past calendar year. Technically, it would be possible to create a fully automated solution that would not create a significant administrative burden for the platform operator either," Kokk said.
The MP emphasized the importance of equal treatment of all market participants.
"Uniform and transparent conditions of competition benefit all companies. It makes no sense in the present day to continue with a model where paying tax is voluntary for some companies active in Estonia," he said.
Members of the Riigikogu finance committee also met on Wednesday with representatives of the Estonian Banking Association over topics of combating money laundering.
"We found that the possibility of electronic data exchange between the Commercial Register, the Land Register, the Population Register, the e-Tax Board, the criminal records database, the Politically Exposed Person (PEP) register personalized on the basis of the MHD register, and the register of accounts has to be resolved quickly to facilitate the collection of taxes and combating money laundering and simultaneously make them more effective," Kokk added.
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Editor: Helen Wright