26. February 2010

To this day non-profit association was the only corporate body who submitted all their reports to IRS where common people didn’t have access to examine them.

From 2010 all non-profit associations must file their annual reports instead of Internal Revenue Service to Commercial register. This allows their activities to become more transparent than before and gives public a chance to make acquaintance with the reports. For associations this is an anticipated change.

The same applies to foundations and all other legal entities who cannot forward their annual reports anymore on paper or via file. Now it is necessary to submit their reports via internet by filling out the required fields, similarly to E-IRS where Estonia is already used to send tax declarations. People who are equipped with the latest software may exposit their accountancy by uploading the files in xbrl- format on the Company Registration Portal. All this would accelerate the processing of data and ease collecting official statistics.

Because of the changes many free of charge schoolings are held all over Estonia. Equally important is that the board members are capable of using digital signature. Free schoolings for using digital signature are managed by www.olekaasas.ee.

Henceforth court registration departments apply the same requirements to NGOs as they have for companies – for not submitting annual report the court may fine all the board members without notice or even start compulsory liquidation of the organization.

Company Registration Portal (CReP) is a portal for the entrepreneurs to communicate with the registration departments of the courts and the Central Commercial Register to perform different acts in the register. Entrepreneurs can submit an application for entry, a list and changes in it of the members of supervisory board, a list of auditors, contacts, information about changes in the area of activity and annual reports.

Estonian citizens can access the portal by ID-card, Mobil-ID or via bank-link. Portuguese, Finnish and Belgian citizens can access the portal by ID-card and Lithuanian citizens by Mobile-ID.

e-filing of annual reports: http://www.rik.ee/reports
Cross-border digital signature: http://www.rik.ee/crep/cross-border

By Siim Miil, NENO's volunteer