Estonia’s Simple Tax Day

February 15, 2012

Photo: www.rup.ee

Today marks the first day of the year when Estonians can file their annual income tax returns.  Estonia modern and simple tax infrastructure based on internet technology is a model for other countries.  “E-Tax,” the electronic tax filing system put in place by the Estonian Tax and Customs Board in 2000 and vastly improved two years later, has drastically reduced the amount of time that Estonians spend filing their taxes returns.  Estonian citizen use a secure ID to log into the system, review their data in pre-filled forms, make any necessary changes, and approve the document with a digital signature. From start to finish, this process usually takes less than ten minutes and the popularity of this system speaks to its ease of use—in 2011, 94 percent of tax declarations in Estonia were filed using it.  We are envious!