Project a portfolio forward with fees, inflation and tax, using Estonian rules. The one number that matters here and is most often got wrong is the tax rate: Estonia has no separate capital gains tax.
Your plan
Advanced — fees, inflation, tax, contribution increases
| Year | Contributed | Value | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €3,400 | €3,542 | €142 |
| 2 | €5,800 | €6,256 | €456 |
| 3 | €8,200 | €9,154 | €954 |
| 4 | €10,600 | €12,249 | €1,649 |
| 5 | €13,000 | €15,554 | €2,554 |
| 6 | €15,400 | €19,083 | €3,683 |
| 7 | €17,800 | €22,852 | €5,052 |
| 8 | €20,200 | €26,877 | €6,677 |
| 9 | €22,600 | €31,175 | €8,575 |
| 10 | €25,000 | €35,764 | €10,764 |
| 11 | €27,400 | €40,665 | €13,265 |
| 12 | €29,800 | €45,898 | €16,098 |
| 13 | €32,200 | €51,487 | €19,287 |
| 14 | €34,600 | €57,455 | €22,855 |
| 15 | €37,000 | €63,828 | €26,828 |
| 16 | €39,400 | €70,633 | €31,233 |
| 17 | €41,800 | €77,900 | €36,100 |
| 18 | €44,200 | €85,661 | €41,461 |
| 19 | €46,600 | €93,948 | €47,348 |
| 20 | €49,000 | €102,797 | €53,797 |
Estonia taxes investment income at the ordinary income tax rate
There is no capital gains rate, no reduced rate for long holdings and no dividend rate for a resident individual. Gains are income, and income is taxed at 22%. If you have arrived from a country with a preferential capital gains regime, this is the assumption to discard first — and if a calculator quotes you 15% or 20% for Estonia, it is describing somewhere else. Ours did, until August 2026 — a hard-coded 15% that belongs to a neighbouring country's tax system and not to Estonia's. It never reached a live page, it is fixed, and the fix is the reason this paragraph exists: you cannot audit a calculator's constants, so you are entitled to be told when we find one of ours wrong.
Why the investment account is worth using
The investeerimiskonto does not reduce the rate. It defers the tax: within the account you are taxed only when withdrawals exceed contributions, so nothing is taken while the money compounds.
| On a standard example | Investment account | Ordinary account |
|---|---|---|
| Total contributed | €49,000 | €49,000 |
| Value before tax | €105,377 | — |
| Gain | €56,377 | — |
| Tax | €12,403, once, at withdrawal | Paid every year, as gains are realised |
| Net at the end | €92,974 | €88,284 |
| Difference | €4,691 better | — |
The example is €1,000 initial, €200 a month, 20 years, 7% nominal, no fee.
The higher the tax rate, the more deferral is worth — which is the opposite of the intuition
People assume a high tax rate makes tax-sheltered accounts less attractive. For a deferral account the reverse is true: the benefit is the compounding of money you would otherwise have handed over each year, so a bigger deferred tax compounds into a bigger advantage. Estonia's 22% makes the investeerimiskonto worth €4,691 on the example above. At 15% the same arithmetic gives about €3,566 — so the wrong rate understated the case for the very account this calculator exists to explain.
What the projection does and does not model
| Handled | |
|---|---|
| Monthly compounding | Yes — (1+r)^(1/12), not r/12 |
| Platform and fund fees | Yes, compounded against the balance |
| Inflation | Yes — shown as a today's-money figure |
| Rising contributions | Yes, as an annual percentage increase |
| Tax | Once, at the end, on the gain — at 22% |
| Sequence of returns | No. A flat annual return, which no real market delivers |
| Currency risk | No |
| Withdrawals along the way | No. It models accumulation only |
FAQ
What is the capital gains tax rate in Estonia?
There isn't one. Estonia has no separate capital gains tax for a resident individual — investment gains are income and are taxed at the ordinary income tax rate of 22%. The same goes for dividends received by a resident individual and for interest. If a source quotes you 15% or 20% for Estonia, it is describing a different country — a common error, and one this site's own calculator code made until August 2026.
Does the investment account reduce my tax?
No, it defers it, and deferral is where the value is. Inside an investeerimiskonto you are taxed only when withdrawals exceed contributions, so tax is not taken out each year and the money that would have gone to it keeps compounding. On a standard example — €1,000 initial, €200 a month, 20 years, 7% — that is worth about €4,691 against an ordinary account where gains are realised and taxed annually.
Does a higher tax rate make the investment account less useful?
The opposite, and this catches people out. Because the benefit is deferral rather than a reduced rate, a larger deferred tax compounds into a larger advantage. Estonia's 22% makes the account worth more than a 15% rate would, not less. That is why getting the rate right in the model matters in both directions: too low a rate understates the case for the account.
What return should I assume?
7% nominal is a common convention for long-run global equities and it is what this calculator defaults to. It is a convention, not a forecast: real returns arrive in a sequence rather than evenly, and the order matters a great deal when you are contributing monthly. The most useful thing to do with the field is change it — seeing how far the answer moves between 5% and 8% tells you more about the uncertainty than any single projection does.
Are fees really worth worrying about?
Yes, more than most people expect, because a fee compounds against you for the whole period. Broad index ETFs commonly charge somewhere around 0.05% to 0.25% a year. Put a realistic fee into the advanced fields and compare against zero — on a twenty-year plan the difference is usually a larger number than the fee percentage makes it sound.