OREANDA-NEWS. January 15, 2015. An assocation of small and medium-sized enterprises handed over to Parliament a petition with 1,901 signatures to end the requirement that all 1,000-euro sales transactions be reported on monthly company value-added tax returns.

The Estonian Association of SMEs says entrepreneurs are facing increased administrative burden, and that this measure does not suit the purpose of combating VAT fraud.

The Association of SMEs' public relations diretor Kristi Hunt said: "We fear the creation of a kind of super-database that is transmitted to the tax board, we have no complete certainty that there will not be business secrets spilled, which would hurt the opportunities for such companies to do business."

Speaker Eiki Nestor, who accepted the petition on Monday, said that it was clear the requirement, effective from November 1, would mean more paperwork, but that it was too early to assess whether the benefits outweighed the burden.

Nestor said discussions on the matter would have to take place after the March 1 elections.

But Marek Helm, the director of the Tax Board, stood by the changes, calling the requirement that transactions 1,000 euros and over be itemised the "greatest change of the last decade" in an ETV interview.

"If we look at last year's receipts compared to 2013, receipts were 9.3 percent better each month. But in December, when the new appendix to the VAT return was filed, receipts were 17 percent better than the previous year."