In autumn 2015, the Tax and Customs Board and rideshare platforms Taxify and Uber agreed to create a platform that would simplify the declaration of taxes of rideshare drivers. The first data about the project were expected for the fiscal year 2016, and according to daily Eesti Päevaleht are now available.

The simplified declaration comes as a prefilled form, which was used by a few dozen of altogether 62 private individuals that declared some of their income originating from providing rideshare services.

Uber confirmed that they have more than 500 drivers, and Taxify including the regular taxi drivers using its platform has some 2,000 drivers.

In 2015, some €70,000 were declared as income of private individuals from providing rideshare services. 

Last year all numbers were up, with 274 drivers having used the prefilled form, and rideshare drivers altogether declaring €435,418. On average an individual driver made €1589 over the whole year, or about €130 per month.

According to the Tax Board’s press spokesman, Rainer Laurits, their experience shows that checks alone can’t bring about changes in the taxi business. “A convenient public service in any case is a more effective way to achieve our aims than checks,” Laurits said commenting on the board’s reason to introduce the simplified tax declaration form.

He added that the now well-established online tax declaration system was used by considerably fewer people in the beginning, and that it took some time for people to get used to it.