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Below we list eight main reasons why companies prefer outsourcing payroll operations instead of a dedicated in-house department.

The European Union has adopted new rules on VAT that will simplify and facilitate e-commerce. The rules will come into effect in full on 1 January 2021, but companies that provide electronic services will be able to benefit from the rules already starting 1 January 2019.

It is extremely important for managers to pursue self-improvement. As the saying goes: a fish starts rotting from the head. Unfortunately, managerial culture in Estonia is not at a level we can be satisfied with. We have many companies where money and financial results are managed but where the people are not. Actually, instead of money and results, it’s people who should be managed. If so, the good results will not be long in coming.

This year, a number of large-scale purchase and sale transactions have provided much fodder for discussion in the media – Nelja Energia, Luminor and Utilitas are three examples. The large transactions always stand out, but this year has seen many mid-sized and small company acquisitions as well.

Although employer branding is seen as mainly the domain of personnel and marketing people, it isn’t only their function. Managers have just as important a role here, because it is managers who can leave employees with a good experience of the organisation as employer. Or the opposite – a negative experience, because Estonia has many organisations that have a substandard managerial culture and instead of leading people, they’re busy managing money and processes.

United Motors has purchased the distributor of Peugeot and Hyundai in Estonia. Grant Thornton Baltic provided advisory services for the transaction.

International commerce is increasingly digital. But the global taxation system is still aimed at traditional “brick and mortar” needs. The action plan of the OECD’s package of measures to combat base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) acknowledges the need for modernisation. This has been partly achieved after the BEPS Action Plan was released in October 2015.

25 October will mark five months since the entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation . There was much confusion before that. Companies wondered whether employees’ birthdays could be printed out and tacked to the wall in the break room. Maybe Christmas presents could no longer be given to employees’ children because that, too, would require the children’s personal data to be “processed”.

Grant Thornton has released a new guide to help international entrepreneurs navigate transfer pricing regulations in different countries.

This year is the point where the economy peaked – it can’t get any better. We already see economic growth tapering off in Estonia, the EU and elsewhere. But will we lose our footing as we slide downhill or will we be able to softly glissade down the easy slopes?

From the 1st of September 2018, all Estonian companies will be required to submit data on their beneficial owners to the Commercial Register of Estonia.

In September, a new amendment to the Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prevention Act will enter into force, requiring companies to disclose data on their beneficial owners.

According to the GDPR people have right to query data processors about the data they hold about them. People have right to ask what data a processor holds about them, for what purpose and what is done to the data. They also have a right to rectify and erase data. Data processor is obliged to reply within 30 days of the request being made to comply with the regulation.

In the last few decades, the topic of female executives has received consistent attention in the industrialised West.

Starting 15 January 2018, Estonian companies managed from abroad will have the obligation to designate a contact person. That means all Estonian companies whose management board is located abroad must appoint an Estonian-based contact person.

By the end of the first quarter – 31 March – all companies must draw up and communicate to employees a holiday schedule for the current year.