Only 56 pct of required entities submit annual report on time

Photo: RIK

June 30 was the deadline for submitting annual reports for all obligated entities whose fiscal year ended last year, however, only 56 percent managed to meet the deadline.

Approximately 290,000 entities, which constitutes about 95 percent of all reporting-obligated entities, had to submit their annual reports. Of these, 162,689 legal entities submitted their reports on time, the Estonian Ministry of Justice reported.

"The Ministry of Justice thanks everyone who has submitted their reports on time. Although we are pleased to acknowledge that compared to last year, the number of those who submitted their reports by the end of June has increased by 5 percent, unfortunately, the overall proportion of reports submitted on time has remained the same on a year-to-year basis and nearly half of the reporting-obligated legal entities do not submit their reports on time," Margit Veskimae, head of the ministry's court registry department, said.

"We remind everyone that timely reporting is a legal obligation for legal entities and even those who have not engaged in any economic activity must submit a report. This is not just a requirement of the law, but a timely and correctly submitted report is a necessary tool for both the entrepreneur for planning their activities and for the state in making decisions concerning the economic environment," she added.

The increase in reports submitted on time may have been influenced by significant changes to the Commercial Register Act that came into force this February, affecting the supervision by the registrar over those legal entities that do not submit their reports on time.

"Compared to before, the registrar now has the ability to initiate a supervision procedure more quickly, its options to mete out fines have been expanded and the process of deleting a legal entity has been expedited and simplified," Veskimae noted.

The head of the court registry department explained that the aim of enhancing supervision is to improve compliance with the obligation to submit reports, thereby more quickly limiting the activities of those entities that have failed to fulfill their obligation to the state and would qualify for deletion from the register.

"The extent to which the changes that came into effect this year will improve reporting discipline in the future can be evaluated following the supervision procedures over a longer term perspective," she added.

The Ministry of Justice asks entities that have not yet submitted their reports to the register to do so electronically through the e-Business Register portal at the earliest opportunity. Supervision over the non-submission of annual reports is carried out by the registry department of the Tartu County Court.