On 17 October 2023 the EU amended its blacklist of uncooperative tax havens that are subject to special taxation procedures. The blacklist now contains 16 jurisdictions, including Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, the Republic of Seychelles, and Russia. As 2023 saw the list being amended several times, there are certain tax aspects that may raise questions, yet national law does not always provide the answers. In this article we take a look at what the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the State Revenue Service (SRS) think about the tax treatment of a Latvian-resident individual’s income from a substantial participation in a foreign company, including dividends from a blacklisted tax haven.
In our previous article we offered an introduction to aspects a family business needs to consider when it comes to operating in a different jurisdiction after relocating their company or setting up a new one. In this article we’ll be exploring the regulatory framework and legal structures as well as the tax regime, based on PwC guidelines.
Court ruling No. SKC-165/2023 was published last November. While it does not address any fresh legal issues, the subject of worker postings combined with the significant amount of this claim creates the need to analyse this ruling in more detail. The pay components assessed in the ruling allow us to summarise and evaluate pay issues relevant to any worker posting.
On 7 December 2023 Parliament passed amendments to the Personal Income Tax (PIT) Act in their second – final – reading. As part of the 2024 budget bills package, these amendments were debated as a matter of urgency, with two readings only. This article explores what we see as key changes, including new products added to the basket of allowable expenses, compensation for remote work, and other exempt income groups that will have their exemption thresholds increased from next year.
Company board members should carry out their duties as honest and diligent stewards at all times.The content of the phrase “as an honest and diligent steward” has been deliberately left undefined in the law, and so this should always be tailored to find a fair solution to each dispute.
The administrative courts occasionally hear disputes between the State Revenue Service (SRS) and associations either over their obligation to pay tax because it turns out that the overt or covert purpose of forming an association was to make profits or capital gains for its members, or over breaches allowing the SRS to delist the association as a public-benefit organisation. In either case the bone of contention is a business the association conducts in addition to its core activity, which the SRS assesses differently and perceives as an irregularity.
Under the Civil Code, a gift is a legal transaction whereby someone gives an asset to another person for free out of generosity. While a gift is mainly associated with something pleasant, there may be risks and questions – read on to find out more.
The Competition Council has started monitoring retail markets in the wake of the recent high-inflation episode. Analysing this information provides insights into the relationship between retailers and suppliers and how this affects the market. The Competition Council is soon expected to publish the data and findings derived from this monitoring, with more attention being paid to breaches of fair trade practices and prohibitions that buyers and retailers have to observe. While it’s difficult to predict what this monitoring will yield, political pressure may lead to significant changes in this sector.
In our article of 11 July 2023 “Commerce Act amended” we informed our MindLink subscribers about the extensive amendments of 16 June 2022 to the Commerce Act that came into force on 1 July 2023. In that article we looked at some of the amended clauses of the Commerce Act. This article explores the Act’s rules for paying up a company’s share capital and relevant changes that came into force in the summer.
There is much talk of various sustainability aspects within and outside the European Green Deal. Sustainability has become a daily routine in the more conscientious companies, as they devise sustainability strategies and report on sustainability goals they have achieved. There are also some companies that seek to exploit this situation by advertising themselves as well as their products and services as green, environmentally friendly or sustainable, because this may give them advantages on the market. This approach is not always seen as honest, and it can mislead consumers or even affect competition.
To pick up where we left off last week about the Finance Ministry’s proposals for amending the Personal Income Tax (PIT) Act, this article looks at the proposed procedures for computing, reporting and paying PIT.
On 12 September 2023 the European Commission published its proposal for a transfer pricing (TP) directive to align TP requirements across the EU. While most of the member states, including Latvia, are to some extent applying recommendations made by the OECD TP guidelines, the European Commission is proposing the directive and calling on the member states to adopt the same TP standards in order to secure a level playing field. If the new rules are approved in their current version, they will be passed into the member states’ national law by 31 December 2025 and applicable from 1 January 2026.
Directive 2023/970 on equal pay came into force in June 2023. The courts have been hearing equal pay disputes for a long time, yet the number of such lawsuits is likely to grow as more information becomes available under the directive. This article looks at equal pay litigation in Latvia and objective grounds for pay gaps.
The end of September has been productive for farmers and ministries alike. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has come up with proposals for amending the Personal Income Tax (PIT) Act, packaged into two bills. In this article we look at new additions to the basket of allowable expenses, as well as discussing remote work compensations and other classes of exempt income with an increased exemption threshold provisionally coming into force on 1 January 2024.
