Estonia, Financial Services, Insurance, Legislation

While in the past, the government has fixed the unemployment insurance tax rate by a year, it was decided in September 2014 that the tax rate is 2.4% for four years, or until 2018.

The Unemployment Insurance Fund Council has now made to the government a proposal to leave the unemployment insurance tax rate for 2016 at the same level with 2015, or at 1.6% for employees and 0.8% for employers.

However, the Council proposed for the years 2017 to 2019 to reduce the rate from 2.4% to 2.1%, or to 1.4% for employees and 0.7% for employers.

"Unemployment Insurance Fund reserves are adequate and growing them in such a large volume, by more than 40 million euros a year, is not justified," explained the Chairman of the Council of the Unemployment Insurance Fund Toomas Tamsar.

By the end of 2016, the Unemployment Insurance Fund volume of assets is projected to be 690.8 million euros. At the end of last year, the fund's net asset value was 610.3 million euros. By the end of this year, the expected value of the assets of the Unemployment Insurance Fund is 648.8 million euros.