A gamechanger for retail investors in Estonia — there’s now an automatic flow between Lightyear and the local Tax & Customs Board, meaning you can forward your tax information to them in just four taps.
The report we forward will cover gains from sales, dividend payments and MMF distributions. For interest on uninvested cash, Lightyear will always forward the taxable amount automatically.
Here’s how it works:
From your Lightyear app, navigate to ‘Settings -> Tax -> "Send data to EMTA". You’ll then have to choose your profit / loss calculation method. Both are accepted, but you will have to use the same method over multiple tax years:
Average cost
At the time of transfer, the cost of one investment is calculated by dividing the amount of the total costs by the number of securities purchased
First in, first out (FIFO)
Transfer takes place in the order of when you purchased securities
From there, you’ll have to sign into EMTA’s portal to verify and approve the submitted information.
We’ve pulled together a little guide on what to keep in mind when you’re verifying your information in EMTA’s system:
- Table 8.1 will show dividends and MMF distributions
- Table 8.2 will show income from selling shares
- Table 8.8 will show dividends from US instruments
Make sure to pay extra attention to:
- Dividends from US-listed ADR companies, for which we don’t have the correct withholding tax rate
- Sell orders involving corporate actions, for which you’d need to double check the cost basis
Disclaimer
Capital at risk. Terms apply, seek guidance if necessary. This is not tax advice.
Joachim Seminck is a full-stack product engineer at Lightyear. A veteran of Pipedrive, Joachim was one of the first engineers at Lightyear and is responsible for some of the technical foundations of our product. Outside of work, Joachim is an experienced investor and an avid cyclist.
