The Estonian Tax and Customs Board (ETCB) calls on companies that have fallen into difficulties in paying taxes in the period of the emergency situation and cannot afford to pay the full amount of taxes they owe to apply for payment by instalments through the e-MTA. After the end of the emergency situation, interests will be charged again on tax arrears that are not rescheduled.
As it is most likely that the number of applications would be large, the ETCB asks businesses to submit their applications as soon as possible, but try to be patient as for their processing time.
The purpose of rescheduling the payment of tax arrears is to support persons with temporary solvency problems.
"Businesses should not have to close down merely because they face temporary solvency problems due to the emergency situation. We assume that those who paid taxes correctly before March would like to do so in future as well, and the fall in their turnover and solvency problems are temporary," said Liina Jõõts, head of accounting and debt management at the ETCB. "If the Government does not prolong the emergency situation and, according to the current decision, it ends on 18 May, interests on unscheduled tax arrears will be charged at a rate of 0.03% per day, and the ETCB will also start collection of debts."
It is possible to apply for payment of tax arrears in instalments in the e-MTA in section "Accounting" – "Payment of tax arrears in instalments". The ETCB accepts the application for payment in instalments provided that the business has correctly filed its tax returns.
As of 1 May, the ETCB will be able to grant an interest rate reduction of up to 100% to businesses that have rescheduled their tax arrears. The final decision on the extent of the preferential interest rate is taken by the tax authority, but one of the two conditions must be met:
the business had no tax arrears before 1 March 2020 or they were correctly rescheduled and there were no late payments;
the total amount of tax arrears is less than 20 000 euros.
Other persons generally receive an interest rate reduction of 50% on deferral.
At the beginning of the emergency situation, the ETCB closed the public inquiry of tax arrears because it did not show the actual economic position of companies due to the suspension of debt rescheduling. The public inquiry of tax arrears on the ETCB website reopens on 25 May, including information on debt rescheduling. Until then, tax arrears that were due before 1 March 2020 are published on the ETCB website.
A total of 8843 companies with no earlier debts have incurred a tax debt in excess of 50 euros during the emergency situation. The total debt of such companies amounts to nearly 99 million euros. The lion's share of them, i.e. 8142 companies, owe less than 20 000 euros. In addition, 2089 debtor companies of those who had tax arrears before the emergency situation have failed to pay their rescheduled instalments on time or to pay their new tax liabilities during the emergency situation.