The deadline for submitting annual reports, for the 2023 fiscal year was July 1, by which time, 181,136 legal entities, or 66 percent of those required to submit their reports, had done so.

Heddi Lutterus, Deputy Secretary General for Legal Policy at the Ministry of Justice, said: "The timely submission of reports is important as it contributes to a more transparent and reliable business environment."

"These reports provide valuable information to business partners and to the state. Submitting the annual report also saves the entrepreneur's time in the future, as Statistics Estonia pre-fills out a questionnaire, known as EKOMAR , based on these reports. When an annual report is submitted, only information not requested or presented in the annual report needs to be added to EKOMAR," Lutterus went on.

"The proportion of reports submitted on time indicates that the changes implemented in 2023, aimed at motivating companies to submit reports by the end of June, have led to an improvement in the situation, but the number of timely submitted reports could be higher still. This means we need to review the impact of the changes and assess if there are further steps we can take to improve the situation further," she added.

Submitting the annual report is mandatory for all accounting entities in Estonia every fiscal year.

While the usual deadline for submitting reports is June 30, since this was a Sunday, the date was put back by one day.

As of Tuesday, the ministry said, 92,349 reports were still outstanding, of the total 274,744 legal entities required to submit their annual reports for the 2023 fiscal year.

This figure does not include entities which are currently dissolved but which have the possibility of reinstatement.

The quickest to submit their reports in the first five months of this year were newer legal entities, submitting their first annual report this year – 31.5 percent from this category had submitted by May 31, compared with 24.5 percent from the remaining obligated entities, the ministry said.

Supervisory proceedings and fines can be initiated more easily now, which may also explain the improvement in meeting the deadline.

The process for deleting a legal entity from the commercial register has also been simplified and can be done three months after the annual report submission deadline.

Only those legal entities that have not submitted their reports and have no visible assets, ongoing legal, enforcement, or criminal proceedings, or tax arrears are deleted from the register.

A company that has failed to submit its annual report and has been deleted from the register can request reinstatement within three years - this process has been streamlined.

Submission statistics are made freely available online via the e-Business Register portal.

More detailed information in English is here and here.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!