"Income earned from platform work must be included in one's income tax return. Income tax must be paid both on income generated by person's activities, e.g. income earned by food couriers and drivers, as well as on income from renting out one's property," Annika Oja, head of personal income and taxation service at the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, said.

As platform work is a growing trend, the taxation of income earned from it is under the increased attention of the MTA.

"From this year, platform operators are obliged to provide the MTA with information about sellers and service providers operating on the platforms and the income earned by them, which will allow the MTA to check the data declared more efficiently next year. However, the MTA can check the income tax returns of last three years," she added.

If the platform operator has paid taxes on the employee and forwarded the data to the MTA, this information will be included in the first table of the tax return alongside the income from wages and salary.

If the table is not pre-filled, it means that the platform did not withhold income tax on the paid wages and that the income received must be added to the tax return by the individual.

The tax return is simple to complete; enter the payer's information and the amount of income received in the second part of table 5.1.

Income from the provision of accommodation services via platforms on which no income tax has been withheld must also be declared. Income from the provision of housing services must be declared in table 5.6, which is pre-filled if the platform operator has submitted the data to the MTA.

It is necessary to verify the accuracy of the data and, if necessary, to complete the data and pay income tax on the declared income.

If income earned through a platform is received into an entrepreneur account, a service provided by LHV Pank, the data in the income tax return is pre-filled in table 7.2, and all taxes on that income have already been paid.

Platform employees who opened an entrepreneur account in the middle of the year should double-check their pre-filled information. This means that the income earned prior to using the entrepreneur account must be added to table 5.1. 

From 4036 active entrepreneur account users in 2021 to 8474 in 2022, the number of entrepreneur account users climbed dramatically. In addition, the number of transactions has increased from €9.3 million in 2021 to €18.2 million in 2022.

The increase occurred mainly in the second half of the year, after the MTA took steps to boost platform workers' understanding of their tax duties.

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