From 16 February, the filing of 2025 income tax returns begins. As usual, a tax return must be filed if, during the year, you received income on which Estonian income tax was not withheld, or if you wish to claim tax reliefs.
Income earned via platforms has always been taxable. However, since 2024, platform operators have been required to provide the tax authority with information on income earned by people who sell goods and provide services via platforms. As a result, the tax authority has information on individuals who earn income via platforms. Note: from 2026, information will also start to be collected on income earned via crypto platforms.
If you have provided a service as a private individual (e.g., as a courier, taxi driver, babysitter, etc.), you need to check whether the platform operator has declared payroll taxes on the service fee. If not, you must declare the income yourself and pay income tax.
You should also check whether income tax has been withheld from rental income (both when renting out property via a platform and when renting without a platform intermediary). It is important to note that the tax rate on rental income from residential premises is 17.6%, while the standard income tax rate of 22% applies to income from short-term accommodation services or to rental income from commercial premises.
When selling goods, it is necessary to distinguish between selling your personal items and earning additional income from reselling goods. The sale of personal items that were in personal use between purchase and sale is not subject to income tax. Such items may include, for example, children’s clothes that no longer fit, old furniture, etc.
However, if the aim is to earn additional income by reselling goods at a higher price, this is taxable income. In the case of occasional income (i.e., not a regular activity), the profit from selling goods is taxed only with income tax. If, however, the activity meets the characteristics of business (seeking profit, economic independence, planned and continuous activity), the income must be declared as business income, on which social tax is also calculated in addition to income tax (and funded pension contributions, if the person has joined the second pillar).
Therefore, it is worth being attentive and, if necessary, making the relevant adjustments or choosing a suitable business form (for example, an entrepreneur account, sole proprietor (FIE), or a private limited company (OÜ)).
The tax authority’s website contains a detailed explanation of the taxation of income earned via platforms.
Note: when declaring 2025 income, the “tax hump” still applies, meaning the basic allowance depends on the amount of income. A uniform basic allowance will apply to income earned from 2026 onwards.
In the 2025 tax return, the following deductions can be made in addition to the basic allowance:
Since 2024, it is no longer possible to deduct housing loan interest, additional basic allowance for child maintenance, or additional basic allowance for a spouse. However, unused training/education expenses can still be transferred to a spouse. Training/education expenses, gifts and donations may be deducted from income in total up to EUR 1,200.
On 1 September 2025, an amendment to the Income Tax Act entered into force, adding to the list of tax incentives training/education expenses paid for studying in a private childcare facility, private kindergarten and private school, provided the relevant curriculum has an activity licence and is registered in the Estonian Education Information System (or an equivalent foreign educational institution).
You are entitled to deduct training/education expenses incurred by yourself as well as by your descendant relative, sister or brother under the age of 26, or, in the absence of the above-mentioned training/education expenses, the training/education expenses of one Estonian permanent resident under the age of 26.
As a long-awaited positive change, from 1 January 2025 it is possible to take loss-making transactions into account when reporting crypto income earned via a platform holding a MiCA licence. Previously, loss-making transactions could not be taken into account when selling crypto assets, which meant that only profitable transactions had to be declared and income tax paid on them.
Also, from 1 January 2025 it is possible to include crypto assets acquired via a platform holding a MiCA licence in the investment account system.
Before declaring crypto transactions, you should definitely check whether the crypto-asset service provider had a MiCA licence at the time of the purchase transactions. This can be checked on the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) website or in the Estonian register of crypto-asset service providers.
The deadline for filing income tax returns is 30 April. The deadline for paying tax and for refunding overpaid income tax is 1 October, but for clients who file the return in e-MTA, income tax refunds will start already from 5 March.
If it is not possible to file the return by the deadline (for example, the final tax calculation for foreign income is not yet known), it is advisable to calculate the expected tax liability and transfer the amount to the e-MTA prepayment account before 1 October, because if the tax payment deadline is missed, interest of 0.06% per day is automatically calculated on the unpaid tax amount.
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