The autumn sees the State Revenue Service (SRS) sending requests to taxpayers for information on transactions making up their bank account turnover and discrepancies with the information available to the SRS. This article explores the process and practical communication with the SRS (more details in “Bank account turnover out of line with tax filings”).
 

Employment offences commonly lead to an administrative penalty, yet employers with no practical experience of the National Labour Office’s administrative offence proceedings do not always have a clear picture of how a penalty is determined and what principles apply. This article explores the main stages of a penalty and ways to challenge it.
 

High quality comparables are crucial when it comes to setting an arm’s length price in a transfer pricing (TP) analysis. A key factor in this process is making an informed choice about the dataset size, i.e. using comparable financials for one year or multiple years. This article explores key risks and factors to consider in setting an arm’s length price of transactions and using comparables for one or more years. We will be referring to the general rules of Latvian law and the TP guidelines issued by the OECD, with an example from case law.
 

On 9 September 2021 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on a dispute over the tax authority’s right to refuse a VAT refund if the taxable person fails to duly submit documents the authority has requested to prove the person’s refund claim is valid. This article explores CJEU findings and Latvian case law.
 

We have already written about the new Accounting Act, which was passed on 10 June 2021 and comes into force on 1 January 2022. The old Accounting Act and the Cabinet of Ministers’ Rule No. 585 of 21 October 2003, Bookkeeping and Accounting (“Rule 585”) will cease to apply as a result. New accounting rules will be issued to accompany the new Accounting Act. This article explores the content of the proposed rules and the time frame for adoption.
 

Transfer pricing (TP) rules laid down by section 15.2 of the Taxes and Duties Act effective from 1 January 2018 require that a taxpayer’s master file and local file, or only his local file, provide evidence that the TP applied in a related-party transaction (the “controlled transaction”) is arm’s length. Although there is no publicly available information about amounts the State Revenue Service (SRS) has charged for the lack or incompliance of TP documentation/ analysis of controlled transactions over the last three years, we are aware that those are being evaluated, mainly as part of the “Advise First!” principle, as we have written earlier. This article explores common substantial errors in TP documentation pointed out by an SRS official who attended a seminar the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised in May 2021.