Tax benefits for individuals and extent of their use in Estonia during 2007-2009

Abstract

In this paper an overview of tax benefits granted by Estonian legal acts is given, and extent of tax benefits use by resident natural persons using the data from databases of Estonian Tax and Customs Board (ETCB) is analyzed. Also the possibility of tax benefits classification is considered and to whom and on which purposes stated tax benefits are addressed is analyzed. Research based on three years data shows that in Estonia tax benefits for individuals are widely used. On average uncollected amounts of tax due to tax benefits approximately equal 9% of the state budget revenues. Large amount of tax benefits is not a negative indicator per se but they aid distributed incomes to reach people who really need those benefits. In opposite case tax benefits are not reasoned but they rather create additional administrative workload. Talking about Estonian tax system roughly half of tax benefits is addresses to people who belong to low income stratum, at the same time remarkable proportion of benefits may be directed to middle-class and wealthy people.