Tax office not hiring extra staff to check new corporate income tax
The Tax and Customs Board (MTA) needs an additional €2.9 million for IT development and maintenance to collect the new taxes agreed upon by the government. New members of staff will not be hired.
On Tuesday, the government finally agreed VAT will rise to 24 percent from July 2025 as part of the defense tax and again in 2026. Additionally, from 2026, a 2 percent corporate income tax will be also collected.
The new taxes should bring an additional €751 million to the state budget. This will amount to €2.47 billion over four years.
Raili Roosimaa, deputy director general of the Tax and Customs Board, told Vikerraadio's "Uudis+" program the MTA needs to spend €2.9 million on developments and maintenance costs between 2025-2028 to collect the new levy.
As the tax is only expected to be temporary, Roosimaa said, it also includes the costs of reversing the tax. The agency does not plan to hire additional labor, she added.
Corporate profit tax will be applied for the first time from 2026. It will be based on income from 2025. Companies will pay the tax in two parts, in September and December.
If, when submitting the report for the 2026 financial year, it turns out that the profit has been lower or higher, an offset will take place.
Starting from 2027, companies will pay profit tax quarterly. This will be based on the profit shown in the report for the last financial year.
The MTA will mostly check corporate income tax from data and risk analyses, Roosimaa said. "The main source of data for us will still be the financial year report in the first place," said Roosimaa.
"It seems to me, though, that a sensible moment to start digging deeper into the data is when a recalculation point arises, where the trader has the possibility of a refund of overpayments or even a reduction of profits," she added.
Roosimaa said that there are several ways in which companies could report lower profits. This will be a good challenge for the agency to supervise or substantively check corporate income tax, she said.
"The tax is temporary in nature and a fairly small percentage. It is certainly not expected that the tax and customs authorities will be able to check the profit margins of every company in this way," the deputy director said.
The total profit of Estonian companies in 2022 was €9.18 billion. If the 2 percent tax had been applied it would have raised €183.6 million for the state budget,
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Editor: Huko Aaspollu, Helen Wright
