A participation budget allows the public to directly influence the spending of some of the municipal revenues generated by taxes paid by municipal residents. You can take part in planning the development of your municipality and realise your own ideas.
Passed on 11 April 2024, Regulation 2024/2019 significantly changes the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in particular the jurisdiction to hear tax, customs and other specific matters. These changes provide that certain areas of litigation so far handled by the CJEU will now be transferred to the General Court. This is done to make the procedures more efficient and reduce the length of court hearings. The changes came into force on 1 September 2024, when the CJEU Statute was amended, and will apply from 1 October 2024.
This series of articles offers information on the nature of state aid, and this time we will look at a set of state aid rules that is used very widely: de minimis aid. This aid is particularly attractive because its conditions are simplified and it is more accessible than other types of aid. This article explores key changes to these rules, where you can sign up for this aid and what conditions apply.
A claim for damages and litigation expenses totalling EUR 212,040.63 was fully satisfied in a civil case where a PwC Legal client was seeking damages, including lost profits, from a certain private company. The plaintiff’s interests were represented by Natalja Purina, an attorney-at-law with PwC Legal.
Regulation 2024/1624 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing (the ‘AML Regulation’) was passed on 31 May 2024. Money laundering issues have been regulated at EU level for a long time, but this was so far done in the form of a directive laying down only minimum standards and giving the member states wide discretion to choose ways of implementing them.
This article kicks off a new series on state aid, a tool that municipalities and other public persons use to drive economic growth and support business across the country. This article explores the main principles of state aid, which every company needs to know because under the European Court of Justice’s case law every company must act as a good steward and be able to establish whether the state aid received is legitimate. Did you know that state aid is in fact forbidden and only permitted in exceptional cases?
Proposals for amending the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism and Proliferation Financing Act (AMLCTPFA) were laid before Parliament on 3 May 2024. These are being debated along with several other enactments governing crypto-asset service providers to harmonise the national law with the EU framework. In addition to several improvements related to crypto-asset service providers, the Finance Ministry has presented proposals for improving the general AMLCTPFA rules. This would help ease the administrative burden while staying true to AMLCTPFA’s objective. However, the legislative process is not yet finished and the current wording of the proposals might not receive Parliament’s approval in the last reading. This article explores some of the most significant improvements.
A civil lawsuit involving a PwC Legal client’s dispute with an insurer over who owns a cash deposit has ended in payment of the full claim, with recovery of cash and interest on arrears and reimbursement of litigation costs, totalling EUR 115,029.32. The claimant’s interests were represented by Nataļja Puriņa, an attorney-at-law with ZAB PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal SIA.
In late 2023 the Ministry of Finance (MOF) drew up an informational report on plans to improve the operations of the State Revenue Service (SRS). The report suggested appropriate measures, including changes to the SRS organisational structure and revising the types of subordination. The guidelines and the goal of the reform are consistent with the SRS long-term strategy, which provides for improving its operations to become a more efficient tax and customs authority with the emphasis on encouraging cooperation with taxpayers.
All kinds of things happen in life, for example the original document has gone missing. A person used to hold the signed original of a contract that was entered into ten years ago and is still valid. It was scanned at some point in time and retained in readable form but for some reason is no longer available.
While rules on platform work have yet to be passed, the legal frameworks of the EU lawmaker and of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) are living parallel lives. March 2024 saw new yet converging reference points from both directions, and the sharp-eyed reader can start wondering whether platform workers (food delivery couriers) are employees or self-employed.
In our earlier article we looked at the proposed amendments to the Personal Income Tax (PIT) Act, coming into force on 1 July 2024 along with the rules governing civil partnerships. In addition to a range of PIT reliefs that are currently available to married persons and relatives up to the third degree under the Civil Code, the lawmaker intends to provide civil partners with equivalent social guarantees.
Two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the EU Council adopted its 13th package of sanctions on 23 February 2024. Aiming to support Ukraine and tighten the restrictions against Russia’s military and defence sector, as well as targeting restrictions against individuals and entities from third countries, the EU Council has launched a number of restrictive measures.
The EU Blue Card is a special type of temporary residence permit that is available to highly skilled foreign professionals. This article explores key differences in conditions and in the process of acquiring residence rights.
What are an external accountant’s obligations under the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism and Proliferation Financing (AML/CTPF) Act if accounting services are provided to related companies only? The Administrative Division of the Latvian Supreme Court referred this question to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on 4 January 2024.