We often spend a lot of time in Microsoft Office creating and formatting presentations and writing emails and reports. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) means office workers can now save time on such tasks. We have written before about one of the most popular AI tools – ChatGPT and GPT-4, its operating principles, uses and restrictions (see our article on GPT-4 here). In this article we are continuing our tour of new technologies, looking at Microsoft as a leading AI creator for business purposes and its brand new AI assistant, Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Employee stock ownership plans are becoming increasingly popular as a way to boost staff motivation in companies around the world, including the Baltic States. The popularity of stock options is due to how they benefit both the company and the employee. Stock options give employees the right to receive or buy shares in their company after a specified period and for a price below the market value. The company benefits by having employees who are willing to work towards its goals and increase its stock value. Since the national rules for taxing this fringe benefit vary from country to country, it’s important to review the tax laws of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Globalisation means it’s common for companies to have their corporate clients and various procurement projects in countries other than their main place of business. To properly benefit from foreign procurement projects, it’s important to assess not only the benefits but also risks associated with such business opportunities, particularly tax risks. If your company has a permanent establishment (PE) in a foreign country, it’s important to be aware of the corporate income tax and payroll tax implications of operating there. In this article, we take a look at employment tax risks and key issues to consider.

This summer has brought many changes to the Commerce Act. Some of the amendments came into force on 1 June and others on 1 July. All these changes to a greater or lesser extent affect particular persons that are subject to the Commerce Act, and in this article we explore some of the effective amendments.

In June 2023, Parliament passed two extensive amendments to the Taxes and Duties Act effective from 1 January 2024. This was followed by a publication on the website of the State Revenue Service (SRS) detailing the new system’s objectives and explaining the meaning of taxpayer grades.

In our previous articles we discussed the transfer pricing (TP) aspects of guarantees and looked at methods that can be used to arrive at an arm’s length price. We will close out this series of articles with key insights from international case law and compare how the tax authorities treat the validation of guarantee transactions in a TP file.

Summertime sees school students entering the labour market more actively, and their first experience of paid work includes paying taxes. In this article we have summarised useful information that new workers and their parents should know.

One of the preconditions for securing positive customer experience is a robust organisational culture. Customer satisfaction is critical to any company seeking to maintain long-term profitability and competitiveness on the market.

In this article we will look at ways to automate processes using various solutions, that is, how to process incoming PDF invoices that are manually entered into your system, the easiest way to compare data between your systems, and what tools you can use for creating solutions.

In Latvia the rights and obligations of taxpayers and tax authorities, including the SRS, are prescribed by the Taxes and Duties Act and the State Revenue Service Act. Under this legislation, the primary onus is on the taxpayer to compute and pay their taxes to the government.

EU funds and other similar financial assistance instruments have provided support and contributed to the rapid growth, modernisation and development of many businesses. Given the large amount of information and various programme offerings currently available, it’s important to know how to navigate this maze and select assistance instruments that are suitable for your company. This will help you identify relevant assistance programmes, gauge the funding they offer, and understand the criteria for potential project applicants and applications.

Our experience suggests that intragroup services represent the most common centralised activities in a multinational enterprise (MNE) group and they are also transactions being scrutinised by the tax authority.

The crypto-asset sector has made changes to the payment and investment markets and challenged the tax authorities to trace capital gains arising on crypto-asset trades. On 16 May 2023 the EU Council supported the European Commission’s proposal to require crypto-asset service providers to report on transactions their EU customers perform in crypto-asset markets. This will help the tax authorities monitor crypto-asset trading and revenues, thereby reducing the risk of tax fraud and tax evasion. The reporting system is to be implemented with amendments to the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (“DAC”), which is the main system for exchanging data between the tax authorities. The new reporting rules have been passed in addition to the Regulation on Markets in Crypto Assets (“MiCA”) amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937, and to the Regulation on information accompanying transfers of funds, and these rules are fully consistent with the OECD’s crypto-asset reporting initiative.

We have written before about the corporate income tax treatment for the acquisition and maintenance costs of an electric vehicle (EV). Yet employees often charge their corporate EVs at home. This article explores how a company could reimburse an employee’s electricity costs.

Taking care of employees’ mental health is not merely idle chatter or a formal work safety obligation. An employer that fails to pay attention to staff overload issues may face some real legal consequences. This article examines the legal implications of a worker being diagnosed with burnout syndrome and offers a practical overview of how the employer could respond.