- Certificates containing public data (the certificate on absence of tax arrears, certificate of arrears) can be disclosed to anyone without the consent or knowledge of a taxable person.
- Certificates containing information subject to tax secrecy (the taxation data certificate, certificate of residence and tax liability of a natural person, certificate of average earned income for public procurements of construction, balance statement, certificate of declared income, etc.) can be published only with the written consent of a taxable person or in the cases specified in sections 27–30 of the Taxation Act.
Useful to know
It is not necessary to apply for certificates for submission to other Estonian state agencies (Unemployment Insurance Fund, Health Insurance Fund, Labour Inspectorate, Social Insurance Board, Police and Border Guard Board etc.) and local governments, as these authorities have access to the data of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board.
How to apply
The fastest, most convenient and easiest way to obtain a certificate is to generate the certificate in the e-services environment e-MTA of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board. If it is not possible for you to draw up a certificate in the e-services environment e-MTA, you can send us a notification via an online form or come to one of the service bureaus.
In the e-services environment e-MTA you can compile:
- certificate of residence and tax liability
- taxation data certificate
- certificate on absence of arrears
- certificate of arrears
- balance statement
To compile a certificate, sign in to the e-services environment e-MTA and select in its menu Register and inquiries – My inquiries – Compilation of certificates.
By saving your certificate in DigiDoc format, a digital stamp of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board which confirms that the certificate has been issued by the Estonian Tax and Customs Board and that the data on it is authentic and reliable will be added to the certificate. Certificates bearing a digital stamp are equivalent to certificates issued on paper and signed by an official.
The certificate can be downloaded to your computer or sent by e-mail to a necessary recipient.
NB: Always consider carefully before you forward your data to other parties or print out a document.
If you need a certificate that cannot be drawn up in the e-services environment e-MTA of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, you can apply for the certificate using the online form.
The online form can be used to apply for a certificate for yourself or on behalf of another natural person or a company if you have a valid authorisation.
Certificates will be issued by the method you choose in the application, either via the e-services environment e-MTA, by e-mail, by post or at a service bureau within 5 working days.
- Certificates containing public data are issued by e-mail, by standard letter, via the e-services environment e-MTA or at a service bureau.
- Certificates containing information subject to tax secrecy are issued by e-mail in the form of a digitally signed and encrypted document, via the e-services environment e-MTA or at a service bureau.
Apply for a certificate using the online form
At a service bureau, upon presentation of an identity document, you can apply for a certificate for yourself or on behalf of another natural person or economic operator if you have a valid authorisation.
At a service bureau, it is possible to apply for the same certificates that can be compiled in the e-services environment e-MTA: the certificate of average earned income, certificate of average earned income for public procurements of construction, taxation data certificate, certificate on absence of arrears, certificate of residence and tax liability, and balance statement.
Information on the location and opening hours of service bureaus of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board.
Types of certificates
The Estonian Tax and Customs Board maintains a register of taxable persons in which the data of persons collected in the course of taxation is kept.
Some of the data can be disclosed to anyone without the consent of a person because the data is public by law. However, as a general rule, the information in the register of taxable persons is subject to tax secrecy and must be issued in accordance with the requirements of the law.
A certificate of residence and tax liability confirms that a person is a resident of Estonia and is therefore liable to declare their worldwide income in Estonia.
In order to avoid double taxation, Estonia has concluded double taxation avoidance agreements with many countries. In order for an Estonian resident to be able to benefit from the tax incentives and reductions arising from a tax agreement concluded between Estonia and a foreign country in the foreign country, it is necessary to submit a certificate of residence issued by the Estonian Tax and Customs Board to the relevant country.
Compiling the certificate of residence and tax liability
The certificate of residence and tax liability can be issued for a specific date, a selected period, or a year. The start date of the certificate may be set based on the start of residency and the need for the certificate; however, the end date cannot be later than the date on which the certificate is issued. The certificate can also be issued without specifying the end date. Depending on the selected period, the certificate will display information on a person’s residency.
If there are several periods of residence between the selected start date and the date of issue of the certificate, the different periods will be displayed on the same certificate in chronological order, e.g. 15.02.2019–15.03.2020, 07.07.2021–18.09.2022.
It is not possible to compile a certificate of residence and tax liability for a future period. The Estonian Tax and Customs Board cannot guarantee a person's future residency, but can confirm only the status known at the time the certificate is issued or check a previous period.
If the certificate is to be submitted to a country that has entered into an agreement with Estonia for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of tax evasion with respect to income and capital taxes, the respective country must be selected as the tax treaty country in the e-services environment e-MTA. In this case, a certificate is issued that provides grounds for avoiding double taxation. Countries with which no agreement has been concluded cannot be selected, and the certificate drawn up does not provide grounds for avoiding double taxation.
Samples of a certificate of residence and tax liability
Taxation data certificate gives an overview of your declared income (salary, benefits, funded pension payments, income from business activities, etc.), employment register data and arrears.
Taxation data certificate contains information subject to tax secrecy which can be disclosed only by persons themselves, by the Estonian Tax and Customs Board with the written consent of a person or in cases specified in §§ 27–30 of the Taxation Act. Therefore, always consider carefully before you forward your data to other parties or print out a document.
Taxation data certificate data
Taxation data certificate contains the following data of a natural person:
- income on the basis of income tax return;
- payments declared by employer(s) on the basis of the declaration of income and social tax TSD;
- benefits for incapacity for work, unemployment insurance benefits, redundancy payments, pensions, employers’ contributions to third pension pillar, funded pension payments on the basis of the TSD declaration;
- entries made in the employment register;
- dividends and payments made from equity capital;
- entrepreneur account data;
- the amount of arrears for the months in which the person has had tax arrears starting from 100 euros as of the first date of the month.
Compiling a taxation data certificate
When compiling a taxation data certificate, you can choose which data blocks are displayed on the certificate — all, one or more. When compiling a certificate in the e-services environment e-MTA, all data blocks are selected by default.
The starting period of the data cannot be earlier than 36 months prior the date on which the certificate is drawn up. The end period cannot be later than the date on which the certificate is compiled.
Data on the certificate is displayed in the income tax return block by years, in the other blocks by months. If there is no data in the selected data blocks, a corresponding text is displayed on the certificate.
Further information about the data displayed in the data blocks can be found on the certificate.
Taxation data certificate for applying for a loan or support
Taxation data certificate can be submitted, for example, to banks as an additional document to a loan application, to educational establishments for the purpose of applying for study allowance or in other cases to other companies and institutions.
If you are applying for a loan, lease or payment in instalments, credit institutions need the taxation data certificate to assess your creditworthiness. In several credit institutions, you can choose the possibility that the credit institution can, with your consent, request the taxation data certificate directly from the Estonian Tax and Customs Board. Upon granting your consent, you do not have to separately apply for a certificate from the Estonian Tax and Customs Board or submit it to a credit institution, which significantly speeds up the application and decision making process.
The consent given to a credit institution for requesting the taxation data certificate is valid for three months and during this period the credit institution can request the applicant’s taxation data certificate without restriction. The consent can always be withdrawn in the State Portal eesti.ee from the section “Data Consent” by selecting its subpage “My consents” from the menu. After the withdrawal of consent, the Estonian Tax and Customs Board will not issue your tax data to the credit institution.
The certificate concerning the absence of tax arrears is issued when:
- there are no tax arrears (except estimated interest) or
- on the requested date, tax arrears are below the statutory limit for issuing the certificate (less than 100 euros since 1 January 2019) or
- the tax arrears are paid in instalments and the payment schedule has been adhered to, and
- the obligation to submit a tax return has been fulfilled as of the date of issuing the certificate (unless the amount of tax has been determined by the Estonian Tax and Customs Board).
Only claims that are part of tax arrears are taken into account when issuing the certificate on absence of tax arrears, i.e. other claims administered by the Estonian Tax and Customs Office are not taken into account.
The certificate of arrears contains claims that have not been paid by the due date, the disclosure of which is permitted by law (in addition to tax arrears, it includes penalty payments, fines, etc.).
The certificate of arrears is issued when:
- there are tax returns that have not been submitted as of the date of the certificate and/or
- there are no tax arrears (except estimated interest) or
- the amount of tax arrears is larger than 100 euros (disclosure threshold as of 1 January 2019).
In addition to the certificate of arrears, it is also possible to obtain information about tax arrears from the inquiry of arrears. If a person has tax arrears or has not submitted tax returns, the following will be displayed as a result of the inquiry:
- claims that have not been paid by due date (except estimated interest) to be recovered by the Estonian Tax and Customs Board and the disclosure of which is permitted by law;
- a list of tax returns that the person has not submitted;
- amount of arrears by type of claim;
- disputed and/or scheduled part of the arrears;
- due date for payment of the oldest unpaid claim.
With the balance statement, you can check the reconciliation of the balances of your knowledge and those recorded in the taxable persons’ register on a given date.
The statement includes:
- claims with due date that has already arrived
- claims due to be paid in the future
- claims to be paid in instalments
- balance of the prepayment account
- estimated interest amount
- a list of tax returns not submitted
The Estonian Tax and Customs Board also issues the following certificates:
- certificate of declared income,
- certificate of payment of social tax,
- certificate to submit to a Russian Pension Fund.
Last updated: 07.01.2026
