Inheritance tax is payable by individuals that receive property or money from a testator. Rates and exemptions may vary from country to country according to the degree of relationship between heirs, the inherited value and other criteria. Latvia has not introduced inheritance tax. This article explores the Finance Ministry’s proposal for introducing inheritance tax in Latvia, as identified in the report ‘An assessment of the current workforce cost situation and proposals for future action’, a tax policy planning document.

The Constitutional Court (CC) ruled on 13 June 2024 that provisions of the Personal Income Tax (PIT) Act are consistent with section 105 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to property. The ruling was passed after the Administrative Regional Court and Riga City Court disputed the PIT Act’s provisions requiring payment of PIT on gambling and lottery winnings regardless of what the gambler has paid to play the game.

The Ministry of Finance has drafted proposals for amending the Cabinet of Ministers’ Rule No. 336 of 31 July 2001, ‘Allowable Expenses on Education and Medical Services’. The proposals mainly deal with the need to clearly define expenses that taxpayers may claim as allowable expenses.

The peculiar procedure for calculating and paying solidarity tax (ST) often has taxpayers wondering about its link with other Latvian taxes: personal income tax (PIT) and mandatory national social insurance (NSI) contributions. Confusion about ST’s essence and mechanism may lead to a dispute with the tax authority and even litigation. This article explores one of the latest cases heard by the Latvian Supreme Court regarding an ST payer’s request for a refund of PIT wrongly paid by making ST payments in Latvia.

From 1 July 2023 entities and individuals wishing to provide accounting services are required to hold an external accountant licence from the State Revenue Service (SRS).

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.

Effective from 1 July 2024 amendments to the Notaries Act introduce rules on a civil partnership that will allow unmarried (including same-sex) couples to legally register their relationship and will give them social and economic protections. The amendments are to take effect together with amendments to the Personal Income Tax (PIT) Act and to the National Social Insurance Act, which extend PIT relief to persons having entered into a civil partnership.

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 today’s fast-changing employment space, the status of workers has become a subject for legal, social and economic debate. Recent years have seen significant changes to the labour market and to the traditional perceptions of employment, in particular as a result of Covid-19.

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.

The autumn months have been prolific with tax changes, yet some of the tax aspects, including temporary ones, might remain unchanged. The Finance Ministry has proposed many amendments to the Personal Income Tax (PIT) Act, including an extension of the special tax scheme for royalty recipients who are not registered as economic operators. This article explores the proposed extension of the transitional royalty scheme and how this will affect its users.

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.

Following the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, aka the Paris Agreement, the European Parliament signed the resolution on the European Green Deal on 15 January 2020 and urged the member states to carry out the required transition to a climate-neutral society by 2050 at the latest. The Green Deal involves making a variety of important changes. One of such changes is Regulation (EU) 2023/851 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 April 2023 amending Regulation (EU) 2019/631 as regards strengthening the CO2 emission performance standards for new passenger cars and new light commercial vehicles in line with the Union’s increased climate ambition. What this Regulation provides for is nothing new in substance, as CO2 emission requirements for vehicles have been adopted earlier, but it does introduce some fairly ambitious goals. This article explores some of its requirements.

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.

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.