Scam messages have been sent out in the Tax Administration’s name. Read more about scams.

Improvements to the payment process of business taxes in 2025

For business and corporate taxpayers, the tasks relating to payments have long been known as an annoying reason for extra work. Not only taxes but also refunds require several official procedures to be followed. As a result, companies, accounting firms and the Tax Administration itself may often see them as a time-consuming, costly exercise.

To improve clarity and simplicity, the Tax Administration and the Ministry of Finance are in the process of making all payment-related tasks more efficient.

Reference is made to the Government’s policy program and its initiative to streamline tax collecting and to make taxation more predictable.

A number of changes and improvements are introduced:

1. Business taxpayers need just one reference number for paying

One single string of numbers will replace the bank reference numbers that have been specific for every category of taxes. After the Tax Administration has received the amounts of money, they will be applied in a more comprehensive way for settling the business taxpayer’s taxes in the order of the due dates, from earliest to latest.

So far, the tax rules have required every type of tax to have its own reference number. This means that taxpayers have transferred their payments via the bank’s system with the exactly right number, because otherwise the payment would not be matched with the tax that it was intended for. The streamlining makes for more transparency: it will be easier for the business taxpayer to observe how the payment is used.  And there is no need for selecting the right reference number.

However, to use just one reference number is only available to business corporations (companies) — not available to individual taxpayers, self-employed operators of trade or business, operators of agriculture and forestry. 

2. Action points to simplify self-assessed tax payments including refunding

Self-assessed taxes are VAT, employer's contributions, excise duties, and several other taxes and charges. The changes will especially concern payments that involve the bank reference number for self-assessed taxes.

  • Whereas today, at every calendar month’s end, the money the taxpayer has paid in becomes a settlement of other types of taxes owed – the new simplified process will no longer allow this. Instead, the money will remain waiting for the taxpayer’s other self-assessed taxes, or for the taxpayer’s request to receive a refund.
  • Balances in a taxpayer’s account are no longer earning interest, although the taxpayer had sent the Tax Administration a payment many days before a due date. However, the new process will not change the credit interest that the Tax Administration normally adds to refunds.

Further changes will also include a streamlined mechanism for refunds of self-assessed taxes. Taxpayers no longer have the option to ask the Tax Administration to temporarily keep sums of money, which will soon be refunded. In future, the Tax Administration will transfer all refunds to taxpayers’ bank accounts immediately. Read more: MyTax refund preferences to be removed 19 August 2025.

In addition, the changes have an impact on the treatment of refunds of self-assessed taxes: a refundable balance becomes coverage, for the taxpayer’s all taxes, So far, a refundable balance has only been applicable for settling a self-assessed tax.

3. Improved transparency with regard to tax refunds

Under today’s tax rules, certain taxpayers expecting a refund connected to one type of tax cannot benefit from it if they have a tax of another category to pay at a due date too close to the refund’s first date of availability. As a result, the taxpayer must pay the tax regardless of the refund. The streamlining will be based on a chronological system, where in order to settle an overdue tax of a taxpayer, the Tax Administration will not apply refunds, but instead apply any payment coming from the taxpayer based on the date when the amount arrived.

4. Corporations and self-employed business companies to receive the monthly summary electronically, not by post

Up to now, the Tax Administration has sent 1.2 million paper-printed summaries every year to different groups of taxpayers including operators of trade, business, and agriculture. In future, the summaries will only appear in MyTax, the e-service that the majority of taxpayers use.

Dates for these changes to go into effect

The changes to payments/refunds are scheduled for November 2025. In self-assessment, the existing practice that involves the Tax Administration temporarily retaining money that would otherwise be refunded will be discontinued 19 August 2025.

We will release further information and updates about the changes soon

Read more:


Page last updated 6/18/2025