Now that the concept of remote work has become an everyday occurrence, many companies are considering ways to adapt their online staff motivation and team-building events to the new conditions. This article explores the State Revenue Service’s opinion on staff sustainability events held within one department of an organisation and on catering expenses being included in staff sustainability event expenses (“SSEE”) if an event is held remotely.
Latvia continues to sign protocols amending its treaties by mutual agreement. On 29 September 2022 a protocol was signed to amend Latvia’s double tax treaty with Germany. To take effect, it must be ratified by the parliaments of the two countries.
Investment funds have recently become more active in Latvia. Foreign non-resident investment funds often invest in the share capital of Latvian companies. The Corporate Income Tax (CIT) Act is silent on the CIT or personal income tax treatment of a non-resident investment fund paying income to its non-resident members from the sale of shares in a Latvian-registered company. Following the “Advise First!” principle of the State Revenue Service (SRS), PwC has prepared an application on behalf of a client seeking an advance tax ruling on how to proceed in this case.
With the financial year nearing its end, section 15.2 of the Taxes and Duties Act requires many companies to prepare, or to prepare and file with the State Revenue Service (SRS), their transfer pricing (TP) documentation. Since determining related-party status often confuses taxpayers and authorities, this article reminds you who is considered a related party for TP purposes and what transactions require the taxpayer to prepare TP documentation.
In statutory cases, the taxpayer is liable to prepare transfer pricing (TP) documentation and file it with the State Revenue Service (SRS). An examination of TP documentation helps the SRS monitor the correctness of corporate income tax (CIT) payments because the difference between a controlled transaction’s value and market price must be included in the taxable base under the CIT Act. If the taxpayer defaults on the obligation to prepare and file TP documentation, then in addition to the opportunity to start an audit and assess the correctness of the CIT calculation, the SRS may start a data assesment in the field of tax revenue risks and charge a hefty fine on the company if an offence is found. This article explores what offences relating to TP documentation permit the taxpayer to be fined outside an audit and how the SRS should evaluate and justify the size of fine.
The Supreme Court’s Administrative Division has reversed the Regional Administrative Court’s ruling, which had overturned a decision from the State Revenue Service (SRS) on an additional personal income tax (PIT) liability. This article explores the case in detail.
Amendments to section 9 of the Corporate Income Tax Act came into force on 21 April 2022. The Act’s transition rules now have paragraphs 47 and 48, and there is a different CIT treatment of debts appearing on the balance sheet at 31 December 2017 and ones incurred after this date for which provisions were made before 2022 and later. This article offers an updated summary of the CIT treatment of bad debts in different situations.
With employee stock options becoming increasingly popular, Latvian companies too are offering this incentive not only to their own employees but to those of their subsidiaries. This article explores the corporate income tax (CIT), personal income tax (PIT) and national social insurance (NSI) implications of a Latvian company awarding stock options to its own and subsidiary employees.
A company that suffers inventory loss has to forecast a shrinkage rate for the financial year. This may have corporate income tax (CIT) implications. Since the company is allowed to adjust its CIT return for the last month of the financial year without incurring late fees before it files its annual accounts, this article explores the CIT treatment of inventory loss.
By decision of Parliament Speaker I. Murniece, the double tax treaty (DTT) and its protocol have been suspended indefinitely from 16 May. The decision makes unavailable from this date the DTT and national reliefs that provided for an exemption on the basis that Russia had a DTT with Latvia. In this article we explore how this decision affects paying taxes. And we note that the Latvia-Russia social security agreement is still in force.
We have written before about significant differences in measuring total transactions made with related parties during the financial year, to be reported on line 6.5.1 of the corporate income tax (CIT) return, and controlled transactions that determine whether the taxpayer becomes liable to prepare and file transfer pricing (TP) documentation with the State Revenue Service (SRS).
For many years, challenging the receipt of intragroup services and commercial benefits has been among the most popular grounds for corporate income tax (CIT) assessments made by the State Revenue Service (SRS). Our analysis of one of the latest publicly available transfer pricing court cases leads to the conclusion that such a taxpayer dispute with the SRS has not lost its relevance. This article looks at an example from the Latvian court case – the taxpayer’s dispute with the SRS over missing evidence that the taxpayer has actually received management services from a related foreign company.
We have written before about the statutory personal income tax (PIT) scheme for income from investment accounts effective from 1 January 2018. We have looked at steps the account owner – an individual – must take to qualify for the tax-favoured treatment. This article explores a letter from the State Revenue Service (SRS) explaining whether a non-Latvian tax resident earning income from dealings in financial instruments is eligible for the investment account scheme.