e-Tax is the electronic tax filing system set up by the Estonian Tax and Customs Board. Each year, around 98 per cent of all tax declarations in Estonia are filed electronically.

Using a secure ID, a taxpayer logs onto the system, reviews their data in pre-filled forms, makes any necessary changes, and approves the declaration form. The process typically takes three to five minutes. Even one-click tax returns have been possible since 2015 – the data that is already in the system is displayed for the user along with the calculated result, then all the users have to do is click on the confirmation button. All this can take less than a minute.

In addition to individual income tax claims, other declarations can be made in the system:

• An enterprise’s declarations for income tax, social tax, unemployment insurance and contributions to the mandatory pension fund
• Value-added tax returns
• Alcohol excise, tobacco excise, fuel excise and packaging excise duty returns
• INF declarations
• Customs declarations

Visit the Estonian e-Tax and Customs Board.

It is hard to overstate the enormous role Estonia’s banks have played in creating and promoting the nation’s e-government solutions. Banks not only wholeheartedly embraced e-ID, encouraging customers to use their ID cards for secure transactions, even giving away free card readers, they also helped move the population online by developing and offering high-quality internet banking services. Today, over 99% of all banking transactions in the country are carried out online.

• You can access internet banking services anytime from anywhere in the world
• You can do transactions online without visiting a bank

Users of bank services benefit from the convenience of having user-friendly online services available 24/7, a vast improvement over typical banking hours. In contrast with the US, where a third of money transfers are still carried out by writing and mailing checks, which can take days to process, Estonia’s e-banking system is simple, secure and practically instantaneous.

One of the most innovative Estonian e-banking solutions, the Pocopay app, allows customers to open and use a bank account from their mobile phone, and so far, this is also available in the Netherlands and Spain. Pocopay offers convenient banking opportunities for people that are always on the go, allowing consumers to split bills, request money using email addresses or QR codes and make payments via a MasterCard contactless debit card.

Based on regulatory changes in 2017, opening a bank account is now possible online using e‑ID or e-Residency card, a video interview recording and facial recognition technology. Banks are working hard to develop technical solutions that will allow them to welcome clients from anywhere without a face-to-face meeting by enhancing the security of customer identification.

Read more about finance solutions in Estonia.

See also SEB, Swedbank, LHV.

‘Industry 4.0‘ refers to an expected, fundamental shift in the manufacturing sector whereby advanced automation and data exchange leads to the creation of hyper-efficient ‘smart factories’ as well as other significant improvements in the ways producers operate. Some insiders are calling this trend the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Introduction of Industry 4.0-type solutions could impact everything from how quality is monitored to how much effort goes into supply chain management. Several players in Estonia’s ICT sector focus on Industry 4.0 solutions development. At the center of their strategy is a concept called Real Time Factory which, as the name suggests, allows managers to track key performance indicators in real time, showing where improvements can be made and allowing the entire factory to operate as one integrated system. Tallinn-based SimFactory, for example, specializes in helping electronics manufacturers adopt the Real Time Factory approach, giving them the kind of data-driven production that can streamline every aspect of their operations.

Though factory owners and managers may be skeptical or find the prospect of adopting Industry 4.0-type solutions daunting, they should keep in mind that Estonian IT companies have already successfully overcome the significant inertia and hurdles involved in digitizing the government sector. For these companies, making fundamental improvements in the far more receptive private sector will seem like no challenge at all.