2017
At a meeting in Keila-Joa with President of the Republic of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid on 3 October 2017, family entrepreneurs and lawyers from the TARK law firm introduced their vision for making the Estonian economic environment stable in the long term.
“Every family requires a secure and stable environment above all else, and family businesses need the same thing,” said Aare Tark, Managing Partner at the TARK law firm. “The basis of stability is a simple and secure tax and inheritance environment. Today we are facing the challenge of how to continue in a way that ensures that the Estonian economy will be enduring and sustainable not only tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, but also for the next 25 years.”
President Kersti Kaljulaid said that, since the end of the last century, the secret of Estonia’s success has been a stable, simple and easy-to-understand tax system, although winds have been stirred up around the tax system that allude to fluctuations in the equilibrium of the society’s worldviews.
According to the president, family businesses are a stable form of entrepreneurship, which nevertheless are deeply wounded during every crisis, but their long-term prospects and aversion to a large debt burden provides them with resilience in different economic cycles.
“Small family businesses are susceptible to shifting global winds, just like small countries. They are established with one’s family, children and grandchildren in mind. It is not possible to just quit and say, ‘oh well, it didn’t work out’”, said Kersti Kaljulaid. “We have a joint responsibility to maintain our liberal economic environment and a tax environment that does not detrimentally affect entrepreneurship, while maintaining the proper balance.”
The Estonian Family Entrepreneurs Association was established in 2014 and it unites more than 70 enterprises. Lawyers Tanel Tark and Tauno Tark also participated in the meeting.
Picture gallery of the meeting:
