"There is no hurry, there is time to submit an income tax return until April 30," said Grete Urbel, head of Personal Income and Taxation Services at the MTA. "The refund of overpaid income tax is the same as in previous years - if the declaration is in order and does not require the submission of checks or additional documents, the money will be received within a few weeks. However, the speed of return does not directly depend on the order in which the declarations are submitted."

Urbel added: "The priority of the MTA is to maintain the health of its customers and employees, and therefore people are admitted to service offices according to the number of service providers. We ask people not to come to the service offices during the first weeks of income declaration because unfortunately, you will have to wait outside in a queue."

Additionally, in order not to overwhelm the online service, people are also being asked to not submit forms on the first day.

The income tax return is pre-filled and this year information about the sale of real estate and forest are also subject to taxation. It is best to double-check the data to make sure it is correct.

"With pre-fillings, we want to make declaring income even faster and more convenient for people," said Urbel. "But it does not get rid of a person's own responsibility - the pre-filled parts must be checked and changed if necessary."

Overpaid income tax can also be donated to charity if a person wishes to do so, or use it to cover land tax.

The MTA will start refunding overpaid income tax from February 26 to those who have declared their income electronically and from March 19 to people who submitted their declaration on paper. The deadline for paying is October 1.

More than 750,000 declarations are expected to be submitted, the majority online. Last year the MTA repaid €189 million in overpaid income tax, and €58 million was paid in additional income tax.

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