Home > Statistics > Wage and salary indices > Tax account reform causes revisions to the data of wage and salary indices

Tax account reform causes revisions to the data of wage and salary indices

The tax account reform that took effect as of the beginning of 2010 causes changes to the contents, supply schedules and coverage of the Tax Administration's data exploited in the compilation of wage and salary indices. Enterprises themselves will report all their tax payments concerning January 2010 on a single periodic tax return which will replace the tax payment control data used up to now. Because of the revision the new periodic taxation data will include new variables, old variables will be lost and the sources of some data will alter. Some small enterprises are now entitled to extended, quarterly or yearly payment reporting periods. Enterprises with annual turnover ranging from EUR 25,001 to EUR 50,000, or employers with a turnover of EUR 50,000 or less are entitled to quarterly reporting.

The vast majority of the data will still be received monthly, so that around 99-100 per cent of the data on the values of turnover and wage and salary sums are received every month. The proportion of enterprises from which data will be received monthly is over 90 per cent. The rest of the data are received from enterprises entitled to lengthened reporting periods. When the statistics are compiled the data of the enterprises reporting quarterly and yearly are estimated to the monthly level. According to our analysis the changes made to the new periodic taxation data will not significantly affect the quality and accuracy of the produced indices. High quality of the data on economic trends is retained by assuring good quality of the updated data and by developing the analysing tools used in the statistical production process. During the transition phase of early 2010 the time series of the wage and salary indices may become revised in later releases.

---

Last updated 16.3.2010