Estonia

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications for Estonia, wants to analyze the existing use of e-receipts and to propose a new service to be introduced by 2025. \"Although e-receipt has been available as a service in Estonia for a long time, it is still used relatively little. Larger stores offer the possibility of a digital receipt already now, but more often it\'s still paperwork that we can see today. (...)\" said Andres Sutt, the Estonian minister.

Lithuania ranks sixth in the Global Tax Competitiveness Index but it has the least attractive corporate tax regime in the Baltic region. It taxes retained and reinvested profits and applies a personal income tax when dividends are paid out. The effective combined tax rate stands at 27.7%. Estonia and Latvia tax only redistributed profits, at 20%.

After thirty years of independence, today Estonia has a very high government integrity, full respect and guarantee of property rights, a fair tax burden and government spending, high trade investment, and considerable financial freedom. Not bad for a country that has been under State Socialism for almost half a century.

Ever since the first lockdown in 2020, the world has been going through some radical changes. Social distancing became a rule. Everyday life, in general, has changed and people focused on the prevention of the spread of the virus.

The Lithuanian government has enlisted Lithuanian Free Market Institute’s (LFMI) proposal for adopting the Estonian corporate income tax model among Lithuania\'s main tax reform alternatives.

After the resignation of Jüri Ratas (Estonian Center Party) on January 13th, due to an inquiry entailing alleged corruption charges against his party, Kaja Kallas, the center-right Reform Party’s leader, has become the first female Estonian Prime Minister.

Estonia’s Prime Minister Jüri Ratas has resigned over a corruption investigation in his party. He paved the way for the opposition Reform Party to form a new governing coalition that excludes the right-wing populist allies of the previous government.

In what a few years ago would have seemed an unfathomable turn of events, the current Estonian government is set to hold a nonbinding referendum in the spring of 2021 to solidify the definition of marriage as being between a man and woman.

The northernmost Baltic state is in the overall comparison quite successful in fighting the COVID-19-pandemics. To this success contributed among other things the central electronic health system.

In cooperation with the Academy of Liberalism, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom has just released a podcast devoted to the topic of \"Baltic Buuble: COVID-19\". The episode focuses on how much COVID-19 has influenced the economy of the Baltic countries and how dark or bright is the future?