e-Services

The Estonian ID card system is one of the most advanced in the world. All Estonia’s digital services revolve around the ID card.

Introduced in 2002, the Estonian ID card quickly became a highly sophisticated digital access card for all of Estonia’s secure e-services. 

You can use the ID card as:

– national health insurance card,

– proof of identification when logging into bank accounts from a home computer,

– pre-paid public transport ticket in Tallinn and Tartu,

– for digital signatures,

– i-voting,

– accessing government databases to check medical records,

– filing taxes,

– picking up e-prescriptions.

e-Tax is the electronic tax filing system where you log onto the system, review your data in pre-filled forms, make any necessary changes, and then approve the document with a digital signature. The process typically takes five minutes. Easy, eh?

The e-Tax system has made filing taxes so effortless and quick that many other countries are now looking to adopt a similar system.

In Estonia, a majority of tax declarations (98% in 2017) are filed electronically.

In Estonia, electronic signatures carry the same legal weight as traditional paper signatures. 

This saves you (and businesses) valuable time when signing documents. 

Thanks to Estonia’s e-Business register, all you need to register a company is an ID card, a card reader and less than half an hour of your time in a place with an Internet connection. Yes, registering a new business online just takes minutes.

Say good-bye to notary and government office visits!

e-School provides an easy way for teachers and parents to collaborate and organise teaching and learning related activities. Over 85% of Estonia’s schools use e-School.

In e-School, teachers can:

– enter grades and attendance information,

– evaluate students’ behaviour,

– send messages to parents, students or entire classes.

Parents can:

– see their children’s homework assignments and grades,

– check the attendance information,

– read teachers’ notes,

– communicate directly with the teachers.

Students can:

– read their grades,

– keep up with daily homework,

– create e-portfolios with their best work.

e-Prescription is a centralised, paperless system for issuing and handling medical prescriptions. When a doctor prescribes you medicine through the system, you only need to present your ID card later at the pharmacy. The pharmacist then retrieves all the needed information from the system and finds you the prescribed medicine.

This means you will save time on medical appointments and never have to worry about losing your prescriptions again.

All Estonian hospitals and pharmacies are connected to the system. In 2016, 95% of all prescriptions in the country were issued electronically.

For information on other Estonian e-services, please visit the e-Estonia.com website.

Estonia made history in December 2014 by starting the first supranational e-residency scheme in the world.

This state-issued, secure digital identity allows digital authentication and the digital signing of documents for non-residents. Estonia already was a true digital state but this breakthrough has brought it closer to a country without borders.

Read more about this in the e-Residency section.