Law Firm ALTERNA’s partner and attorney-at-law Annika Vait was interviewed by legal magazine CEE Legal Matters

Interview with CEE Legal Matters focused on the legislational changes enacted on 1 July 2019 in Estonia, challenges of the political situation of the state and the current review of business and insolvency law.

According to Annika, one of the biggest changes of legislation to impact the business sector is the submission of e-invoices to public entities. The state has come up with a technical solution to collect e-invoices through one big, unified system. The new system will require a period of adjustment for businesses, but in a long-term perspective, would help the country and earn us the recognition of an innovative IT-state.

Another result of the legislation changes that Annika considers remarkable, is a 25% deduction of excise tax on alcohol. Estonia increased the excise tax on alcohol a few years ago which resulted in competition with Latvia in terms of the alcohol prices, thus the government hopes to make the situation better through the tax deduction.

Annika finds the major challenges in the country to be the results of the parliamentary elections. She says that the election went in an unexpected way and the newly formed coalition made businesses and intellectuals feel rather anxious. As Estonia is known as an innovative and internationally open IT-state, but the Conservative People’s Party does not favor that idea, there is now an issue on how to maintain that image.

Further, Annika says, Estonia’s business law and insolvency law are currently being reviewed with the purpose to analyze the current situation and identify issues to address. However, Annika points out that the laws will be only amended instead of being created wholesale. Yet, only adding new amendments to the acts is likely to make them more complicated.

Read the article in full here: https://ceelegalmatters.com/estonia/11096-the-buzz-in-estonia-interview-with-annika-vait-of-alterna

Questions related to this post can be discussed with Annika by e-mail on annika@alternalaw.ee or by calling +372 680 6850.

Law Firm ALTERNA