Taxman not after the tiny transaction

Photo: Liis Treimann

As assured by Tax and Customs Board director general Marek Helm, disappearance of cash would not bring persecution of ordinary people doing petty transactions between each other, but wings of the Big Tax Evader would surely get clipped.

According to Mr Helm, Estonian Tax and Customs Board has not desired to become spokespersons for the cashless future. Even so, Mr Helm will not deny that, for the tax collecting institution, such developments would make life a lot easier. «Already now, there’s ample technical readiness to give up cash, in Estonian state,» said he. «This, definitely, would cut the percentage of large scale tax evasion, increasing the tax revenue.»

Should cash go, transactions between people would happen in real-time, like via mobile phones – person purchasing potatoes performs mobile payment on the spot; seller’s phone will promptly beep arrival of the euros. In essence, every smart-phone-owner already carries a payment terminal in his very pocket. While checking small cash transactions is basically impossible, with electronic transfers all will theoretically become inspectable.

In reality, however, small scale transactions between people are not on Tax and Customs Board radar at all – cash or no cash. Firstly, officialdom thereof would just not be capable to handle the load; secondly, the taxman is silently consenting to a small part of monetary turnover, amongst the population, travelling tax free now and forever. «There is not such situation, nor ever will be, where we would be able to check the transactions, you know, between the folks down at the village,» said Mr Helm. «Also, these will in no major way endanger state budget not the overall economic environment. Should the next door neighbour, however, desire to pay for eggs via his mobile phone, then welcome to the contemporary world.» According to Mr Helm, Tax and Customs Board is first and foremost interested in large scale and intentional tax evasions, robbing the state and thus the society of huge sums of money. With tax evasions, says Mr Helm, we are talking about cash, over and over again. «Should an enterprise use cash, the actual turnover is very difficult to check,» said he. 

«First and foremost, it is not the potato vendors misusing cash; rather, it’s the crooks – the drug lords, the smugglers; these guys use cash and we are talking very big money here.»