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.

Four years of work have been crowned with amendments passed to the VAT directive concerning a reduced rate of VAT on 5 April 2022. The new provisions will give the governments of the EU member states greater flexibility in applying the rates and will ensure transnational equality. The reduced rates clearly point to EU shared priorities, such as protection of public health, fight against climate change, and support for the European Green Deal, while preparing to phase out the current preferential regime for environmentally damaging supplies.

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.

Council Directive 2020/284 of 18 February 2020 amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards introducing certain requirements for payment service providers (the “Directive”) states that these providers (credit institutions, payment institutions, electronic money institutions, and post office giro payment institutions) operating in the EU will have to keep electronic records of cross-border payment data and exchange those records with a newly formed Central Electronic System of Payment information (CESOP) database as from 1 January 2024.

On 24 February 2022 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on a dispute over the VAT treatment of costs the customer had recharged to the supplier of goods under the contract during the warranty period. This article explores what the CJEU found and how those findings can be put into practice.

Our customers often ask us if transfer pricing adjustments affect VAT. This is an issue that remains unresolved by the VAT directive, the Latvian VAT Act, the Cabinet of Ministers’ rules, or guidelines issued by the State Revenue Service (SRS). Even the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has never dealt with this issue in its rulings. This article explores an opinion expressed by the European Commission’s VAT committee.

As the war in Ukraine goes on, many companies have unselfishly donated to Ukrainian residents and to Ukrainian refugees having crossed the EU border. Does the current tax regime encourage donations? And how has the Latvian government responded to the present situation?

On 20 January 2022 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on C-90/20 (Apcoa Parking Danmark A/S) regarding the VAT treatment of a fee the operator of car parks located on private land charges any motorist who breaks the parking terms and conditions. This article explores the CJEU’s findings and their practical implications.

Latvia is committed to reducing its CO₂ emissions. One of the objectives is to cut emissions from road vehicles. This can be done by minimising the overall use of transport and by encouraging the use of vehicles with low or zero CO₂ emissions. This article explores what incentives are available for buying and using electric vehicles (EVs) in Latvia and other member states.
 

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has examined a question that often faces Latvian taxable persons. May an excessive price of advertising services and the fact that they are not clearly necessary for the company’s business give the tax authority grounds for denying a deduction of input tax on the advertising expenses? This article explores the court findings and their practical implications.

Drafted by the Budgetary and Fiscal Committee, endorsed by the Cabinet of Ministers and passed by Parliament, amendments to the VAT Act are waiting to be announced by the President of Latvia. The amendments are mainly related to changes in other pieces of legislation or meant to take over several VAT directives amending Directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of value added tax. This article explores what we see as key amendments.
 

When goods are supplied to a person in another member state, one might wonder how VAT should be properly applied if the customer has not presented his VAT registration number, yet he is known to be a trader. Is this an intra-Community distance sale or an intra-Community supply of goods? Since the VAT treatment varies, it is important to understand the features of each transaction.

The surge of online trading has more and more businesses not only selling their own goods but promoting sales of third-party goods through various electronic interfaces (e.g. marketplaces, platforms or portals). Under amendments to the VAT rules effective from 1 July 2021, in certain cases interfaces promoting third-party supplies are responsible for collecting VAT instead of the seller. This article explores cases in which the taxable person (interface) is considered to have acquired the goods and sold them on, becoming a deemed supplier.
 

As opportunities for digitalisation evolve, more and more companies are interested in supplying and acquiring services remotely over the internet. For example, ads are placed in news portals and e-mails. All that virtual data has to be stored somewhere, new apps are being created for customer authorisations and payments, and various other services are supplied with the help of information technology. Which of those services qualify as supplied electronically? What difficulties tend to arise in applying VAT on such services?
 

On 12 October 2021 the Cabinet of Ministers debated and endorsed “Adopting a System of Electronic Flow of Supporting Documents and Waybills,” an informational report prepared by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) that mandates the use of electronic supporting documents and e-invoices by 2025. E-invoicing will be mandatory between businesses (B2B) and between businesses and government agencies (B2G).