Estonia Proposes Voluntary Implementation of the Global Minimum Tax for EU Small Member States

At the meeting of the EU finance ministers, Estonian representatives raised the issue of maintaining flexibility for smaller members to decide themselves whether and how to implement the global minimum tax.

“We recognize that it may be difficult to reopen the directive, but will nevertheless continue to defend our simple and transparent tax system… The issue has become one of European competitiveness, as other major economies are not applying the minimum tax in the same way,“ said Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi.

Under the current EU directive, five Member States – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Slovakia – may defer implementation of the minimum global tax until 2030. Estonia stresses that small countries should maintain the right to decide on the implementation beyond that date. It also considers it necessary to ensure that national governments and parliaments have the possibility to introduce controlling measures on how OECD’s considerations are transposed into national legislations (so that it is not simply an automatic procedure).

As a reminder, during its introduction in 2021, global minimum tax agreement under the OECD Inclusive Framework was supported by 137 jurisdictions. By 2025, 55 countries have implemented the system, in most cases voluntarily. The EU is the only region where the rules have been made mandatory through a directive, without the leeway to adapt national regulations in a more independent manner.

Press release