Estonia Agreement and foreign pension information 106-17111500

In Estonia, the pension insurance legislation requires the compulsory payment of social security contributions on behalf of employees, usually through deductions from paid employment.

Contributions insure individuals against disability and unemployment and provides for income in the form of a pension once the person reaches retirement age.

The legislation is the responsibility of the Estonian government but administration and payment of pensions is the responsibility of the Social Insurance Board.

The Agreement with Estonia started on 1 January 2018. There are no previous versions.

For Australia:

Department of Social Services (DSS)

For Estonia:

Eesti Sotsiaalministeerium - Ministry of Social Affairs

For Australia:

Services Australia

Note: the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is responsible for double coverage provisions.

For Estonia:

Sotsiaalkindlustusamet - Estonian Social Insurance Board

For Australia:

Centrelink International Services (CIS)

Note: the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is responsible for double coverage provisions.

For Estonia:

Sotsiaalkindlustusamet - Estonian Social Insurance Board.

Under the Agreement with Estonia, information held about customers may be exchanged between the liaison agencies to determine entitlement to payments under the Agreement and under either country's domestic legislation (Article 17.1).

For more information on bulk data exchange, see International Data Exchange Program and auto-indexation of foreign pensions.

The following liaison form is completed by Centrelink International Services (CIS) and sent to Estonia:

• AUS187EA - Australia/Estonia Agreement on Social Security

For help creating and completing the liaison form, see Agreement liaisons, NZ CICs and exchange of information.

The following liaison form is completed by Estonia and is sent to Centrelink International Services (CIS):

• Liaison Form - EST/AUS2

This form is used in all communication from Estonia.

• Section 1 - Purpose: completed in all cases
• Section 2 - Details of the insured person: this section indicates the claim(s) for which pension the liaison applies and provides details of the insured person
• Section 3 - Applicant, if not the insured person: this section provides details of the person claiming if they are not also the insured person in Section 1, that is, for SUR claims
• Section 4 - Insured person's insurance periods provided by Estonia: this section specifies the Estonian insured periods
• Section 4.2 - Notice of grant of Estonian pension: this section specifies date of lodgement, amount, including historical rates, arrears and type of Estonian pension
• Section 4.3 - Notice of rejection of Estonian pension: this section specifies the rejection reason/s
• Section 4.4 - Other information provided by Estonia: this section provides other information
• Section 5 - Information required by Estonia: this section specifies other information requested from Australia
• Section 6 - Certification: this section specifies who has completed the liaison form

Australian Disability Support Pension (DSP) and Estonian invalidity pensions are not covered under the Agreement.

The Agreement with Estonia includes double coverage provisions. Certificates of coverage are used to confirm exemptions.

Any enquiries about double coverage or certificates of coverage should be directed to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website.

Any queries about taxation of pensions or the requirement to lodge a tax return should be directed to:

• In the other country - the tax authority in that country directly
• In Australia - the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website

For general information on taxation, including issuing Australian payment summaries.

Tax treaty

Australia does not have a double tax agreement with Estonia.

Tax deduction

Estonian pensions may be taxed (maksud) at the source.

The gross rate of Estonian pension, before any deductions, is maintained.

Estonian tax year

Estonia uses the calendar year (1 January - 31 December) as the tax year.

Australia does not have a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) with Estonia.

See general information on health insurance and Medicare coverage.

Any queries about:

• Health insurance coverage in the other country - tell the customer to contact the health insurance authority in the other country
• Medicare coverage - direct them to Medicare

The official language of Estonia is Estonian.

Telephone country code is +372.

Street address

Title FirstName Surname [Addressee]

Aia tn 1–23 [Street name + building number + apartment number]

10615 Tallinn [Post code + city/town/county]

ESTONIA

Rural address

Title FirstName Surname [Addressee]

Mooska Farm [Name of farm]

Haanja [Name of village]

65601 Voru [Post code + parish/county]

ESTONIA

Since 1 January 2016, same-sex couples may register their relationship as a cohabitation agreement, which gives them almost all the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples.

For Australia, the Agreement with Estonia (Article 2.1) covers:

• Age Pension

Claims for Australian payments under International Agreements use the same methods and processes as domestic claims.

Forms to claim an Australian payment in Estonia can be obtained by:

• downloading the relevant form from the Services Australia website. See Resources
• contacting Centrelink International Services (CIS)
• contacting the Estonian authorities

Australian forms needed

All claims:

• AUS140EA - Australian Pension Claim – Social Security Agreement between Australia and Estonia
• Mod(iA)EA - Income and Assets - Estonia

Forms can be lodged at any Estonian social security office.

Under Section 9 of the Administrative Arrangements, the Estonian institutions will:

• accept and date stamp the AUS140 form
• verify the customer’s identity and personal details and
• send the form(s) and any supporting documentation to Services Australia with a liaison form specifying periods of coverage in Estonia and information regarding Estonian pensions

See Exchange of information and liaison forms.

If a person is not an Australian resident and in Australia on the date the claim is made, they may use the Agreement with Estonia to meet the residence rules for claims if, on that date, they are:

• an Australian resident or a resident of Estonia (Article 10(a)), and
• physically present in Australia or Estonia (Article 10(b))

Claims under the Estonian Agreement

Claims for Australian payments under the Estonian Agreement may not be lodged in other Australian Agreement countries.

See the Claim lodgement matrix.

Accepting other Agreement claims

Estonia will not accept claims for Australian benefits under other Australian social security agreements.

Claim lodgement consideration

There are no specific considerations under the Estonian Agreement.

The normal rules for working out the date a claim is ‘made’ and the start day to apply to claims under the Agreement with Estonia. However, the Agreement also allows:

• the date of lodgement of a claim for an Australian payment in Estonia to be used as the date of lodgement in Australia (Article 15.2)

For coding help, see:

• Claims for Australian payments under International Agreements), and
• Start Day (CLK)

The Agreement allows:

• totalisation of periods of qualifying Australian residence and periods of coverage in Estonia to meet any minimum periods to qualify for an Australian pension, for example, 10 years for Age Pension (Article 11.1)
• the total of any non-continuous Estonian periods of insurance to be considered to be continuous to meet any continuous residence requirements (Article 11.2)

Note:

• Overlapping Australian residence and Estonian periods of coverage are only counted once (Article 11.3)
• Adjoining periods of Australian qualifying residence and Estonian periods of insurance, with a break of up to 3 months in between, can also be considered to be continuous (Policy)

See Resources in International Social Security Agreements for examples of totalisation.

Estonian period of coverage:

• means an insurance period, for instance, a period during which contributions were paid, or any equivalent period, such as a period of residence or employment, as defined in the Estonian legislation
• where equivalent periods may also include
• deemed periods such as for child rearing or military service
• where any actual or deemed periods may be used when totalising for Australian qualification purposes, as long as they are certified, and don’t overlap
• must be certified by the Estonian Competent Institution

To be able to use the totalisation provisions, a person who is an Australian or Estonian resident at the date of lodgement must have at least 12 months Australian Working Life Residence (WLR) in Australia of which 6 months must be continuous. (Article 11.4).

Note: unlike WLR for rate, this period cannot be rounded.

Customers residing in Estonia do not meet the ongoing residence requirement for DSP.

For customers outside Australia, the Agreement with Estonia (Article 12.1) refers to the overall rate calculation contained in section 12(1) of the Social Security (International Agreements) Act 1999 but specifically excludes additional child amounts (Article 12.6).

This means customers paid under the Agreement have:

• a proportional rate paid according to their Australian Working Life Residence (WLR)
• the Rate Limiter/Limited Rate applied

The Estonian Agreement does not include the proportionalisation of any Estonian pension in the income test (Randisi Concession).

Non-proportional rate extension

Customers paid under the Agreement and temporarily outside Australia, cannot have their non-proportional portability rate extended if they are unable to return to Australia.

The proportional rate continues to apply for the first 26 weeks of a temporary return to Australia (Article 12.2).

• For returns to Australia before 9 June 2018, manually code the Temporary Returns to Aust Ind: on the Residence Savings (RSS) screen

Inside Australia

Customers in Australia under the Agreement are generally paid a direct deduction rate (Article 12.3).

The Agreement does not include a comparison rate in Australia.

The inside Australia rate continues to be paid for the first 26 weeks of a temporary departure from Australia (Article 12.4).

Payments under the Agreement

Under the Agreement, provided the customer remains qualified, Australian payments are payable indefinitely while the customer remains resident and present in either country (Article 5.1).

Third country portability under the Agreement

There is no portability for a departure to a third country for a customer paid under the Agreement.

If necessary, a customer who receives an autonomous payment that stops being payable due to portability reasons can transfer to the Agreement to continue payment if:

• the payment is covered by the Agreement, and
• the customer is able to meet the lodgement provisions of the Agreement

If transferred to the Agreement, all Agreement rules apply to the customer, including portability and rate of payment.

See Transfer to international social security agreements.

A person who would be autonomously qualified but is paid under the Agreement can transfer from the Agreement to autonomous only if they are an Australian resident and in Australia.

On return to Australia, system processing will automatically transfer from the Agreement to autonomous if the person is an Australian resident who has only used the Agreement to extend their portability while outside Australia.

Former resident provisions may affect customers who transfer to autonomous if they leave Australia again within 2 years of becoming an Australian resident.

Australian payments may be issued to customers outside of Australia. If the customer intends to be outside of Australia

• long-term (12 months or longer), their Australian payment may be issued to an overseas bank account. See Overseas Bank Account Details (OBAD) for payment requirements by country
• for less than 12 months, payment will generally continue to their normal Australian bank account every 2 weeks

See Delivery of payments to Centrelink customers outside Australia.

The Estonian Agreement covers the 'legislation governing mandatory state pension insurance'.

Main payments

• Vanaduspension - Old Age Pension (AGE)
• Toitjakaotuspension - Survivor Pension (SUR)

Supplementary payments/Allowances

• Rahvapension (Estonian National pension)

The following known payments are paid by the Estonian authorities but are not covered under the Agreement:

• Invaliidsuspension (Invalidity pension)
• Funded pensions (2nd pillar/tier)
• Supplementary funded pensions:
• Compensa Life Vienna Insurance Group SE
• ERGO Life Insurance SE Eesti filial
• Mandatum Life Insurance Baltic SE
• SEB Elu- ja Pensionikindlustus AS
• Swedbank Life Insurance SE

For help with:

• Assessment of Estonian pensions, see Assessment
• Coding of Estonian pensions, see Eligibility and Coding

The requirement to claim Estonian pension applies to Estonian AGE.

• SUR is only paid to children or parents of deceased pensioners. It can be claimed voluntarily using the SUR claim pack

See Foreign pension claims.

The Eligibility and coding of foreign pensions tab contains detailed information on Estonian payments that are subject to CFP legislation.

Claim packs are available for AGE and SUR.

Claim packs are issued through the Foreign Pension System (FPS). See Assisting customers to claim a foreign pension.

Specific requirements for Estonian claims

The customer is to complete and provide the following:

AGE only:

• Estonian Pension Application EST/AUS1 (original)
• Document showing Estonian Personal Identification Number (if available)
• Workbook verifying employment before 1 January 1999 (if available)
• Military card (if applicable)
• Document to prove study in Estonia (if applicable)

SUR only:

• Estonian Pension Application EST/AUS1 (original)
• Proof of death - Death Certificate
• Proof of marriage - Marriage Certificate
• Document showing Estonian Personal Identification Number (if available)
• Workbook verifying employment before 1 January 1999 (if available)
• Military card (if applicable)
• Document to prove study in Estonia (if applicable)
• Child/ren details - Birth/Education certificates

Note: Estonia will accept certified copies of the above documents as part of the claim process.

Requests for additional information

If information provided with the claim for Estonian pension is incomplete, Estonia will send requests for information in Estonian direct to customers.

Receipt of foreign pension claim by Services Australia

Under the Administrative Arrangements, Estonian forms can be lodged in Australia at any service centre. See Processing a foreign pensions claim.

• All foreign pension claims and supporting documents must be scanned, and
• The original foreign claim form and copies of supporting documents must be sent in paper form to Centrelink International Services (CIS). See Processing a foreign pension claim

Centrelink International Services (CIS) only:

CIS will complete the following or arrange for the following to be completed as necessary and attach the documents to the foreign pension claim to send to the agreement country. See Agreement Liaison Detail (ALD) for method of transmission.

CIS staff are required to sign the relevant section of the claim form.

All claims:

• AUS187EA - Australia/Estonian Agreement on Social Security

For help creating and completing the liaison form, see Agreement liaisons, NZ CICs and exchange of information.

Enquiries about claims for Estonian payments in Estonia should be directed to the Estonian social security authorities.

Estonian payments may be paid by direct deposit in Australia.

Any queries about the non-payment of Estonian pension should be directed to the Estonian pension authorities.

Agreement pensions are paid as 12 regular monthly payments.

Other benefits or private pensions are normally paid monthly or annually.

Estonian pensions must be recorded in the source currency - Euro (EUR). Official statements provide the foreign currency amounts.

Amounts recorded in source currency on the Foreign Pensions Details (FPD) screen must not be changed to the Australian dollar amount.

Note: payments into Australia are made in Australian dollars..

Estonian pensions are generally increased for Consumer Price Index (CPI, or cost of living) changes from 1 April every year.

For information on bulk data exchange and auto adjusted CPI increases, see International Data Exchange Program and auto-indexation of foreign pensions.

• directly deducted (Article 12.3) and ignored in the income test (Article 8(8)(zc) Social Security Act 1991) for customers under the Estonian Agreement who are in Australia
• ordinary income (not proportionalised) for customers paid:
• under the Estonian agreement who are outside Australia
• autonomously inside or outside Australia
• under an agreement other than Estonia or New Zealand who are inside or outside Australia

See Rate Calculation for when a direct deduction or proportional rate is applied.

Note:

• SUR is not payable to a person who is receiving an:
• Estonian Old-Aage Pension
• Australian Age Pension
• Australian Disability Support Pension
• Each member of a couple is deemed to receive half of the total amount received by the couple (Article 12.5)

• Invaliidsuspension - Invalidity Pension (INV)

Invaliidsuspension is assessed based on the customer’s total or partial loss of work capacity.

• Funded pensions (2nd pillar)

Funded pensions are compulsory contribution pensions paid by Pensionikeskus. They are mandatory for persons born from 1983 onwards.

• Supplementary funded pensions
  Supplementary funded pensions are non-compulsory contributory pensions paid by the following Estonian insurance companies:
• Compensa Life Vienna Insurance Group SE
• ERGO Life Insurance SE Eesti filiaal
• Mandatum Life Insurance Baltic SE
• SEB Elu- ja Pensionikindlustus AS
• Swedbank Life Insurance SE
• Rahvapension - Estonian National Pension
  Rahvapension is only payable to residents of Estonia, and is not payable to a person who:
• has lived in Estonia for less than five years before applying for a pension
• is receiving a pension by virtue of an International Agreement
• receives a foreign pension
• does not have a valid Estonian residence permit

It is not assessed because the payment ceases once an Australian pension is granted.

There are no exempt Estonian payments under the Agreement.

The Agreement does not include embargo provisions.

Arrears debts for customers and their partners are raised under s1228A Social Security Act 1991 and recovered via normal methods under the Act. See Comparable foreign payment lump sum arrears debts.

When an arrears period is not provided, the arrears period end date may be assumed to be the end of the month before the date on the notice or liaison form.

A contravention debt may also occur if the customer does not advise of the grant of their Estonian payment within their notification period. See Foreign pension coding.

Life certificates (Life Certificate - ELAMISE TÕEND) are needed each year.

Estonian pension recipients who live outside Estonia must submit an Estonian life certificate for continued payment of their Estonian pension to the Estonian pension authority each year between 1 December and 1 March.

Estonian Life Certificates can be certified by an officer of Services Australia.

For information on helping customers with life certificates, see Assisting customers to maintain an existing foreign pension.

Customers in Australia are sent notices at grant and for changes of rate, for example: indexation.