Flash News offers the latest information on current tax, accounting, legal and other business issues.
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.
A share premium represents an amount that is paid in addition to the nominal value of a share but is not credited to share capital. The face value rarely represents the true value, so a share premium helps the company set a fair payment for its shares and reflect their true value in various share dealings.
We have already commented on the corporate income tax (CIT) treatment of flow-through dividends and looked at personal income tax (PIT) relief available to an individual receiving a dividend. This article explores potential pitfalls in the tax treatment of flow-through dividends if a change of shareholder takes place shortly before the company decides to distribute a profit.
The global tax scene has undergone some historic changes and keeps changing. This has caused multinational enterprise (MNE) groups to revise their global business models and take steps to stay competitive. Facing the evolution of technology, environmental changes and the impact of the pandemic, MNEs are beginning to revise and transform their value chains to make their business even more efficient and profitable.
Paper documents such as invoices and waybills tend to be mislaid or submitted to the accounts department late, leading to inaccuracies in accounting records and tax returns, as well as late payments. Mandatory electronic documents could eliminate these faults.
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?
Our Flash News editions of 14 May 2019 and 21 May 2019 looked at the significance of working capital in a company’s business. This article explores when and why we need to assess working capital in a transfer pricing analysis.
A new social security agreement came into force in March 2021—the agreement on social security between the Government of the Republic of Latvia and the States of Guernsey affecting pensions. This article explores why the agreement was concluded, what problems it solves, and how it affects Latvian nationals living in Guernsey.
During its lifetime a company often has to adapt to new circumstances arising from its internal changes or external changes such as legislative amendments. The first thing that comes to mind when hearing the word “reorganisation” is change, something different, something being transformed, rebuilt, or improved. And that makes sense because a reorganisation means substantial changes in the company that are commonly undertaken to simplify or change the group structure, to expand its business, or, conversely, to split off lines of business.
To compute the price of a controlled support service transaction, we state the total cost incurred in providing the service then add a markup. But some costs are merely recharged without a markup. This article offers an overview of how service fees are set, focusing on so-called flow-through costs that have no element of profit.
The increasing role associations play in society and certain industries raises questions about data the associations use in their activities and communications, which is often obtained from their members. We should not forget that any association is governed by the Competition Act and that associations and their members, just like any market participant, are subject to its requirements, including restrictions on how commercially sensitive information may be transferred, gathered, and made available to association members. What rules do the members have to follow when it comes to disclosing financial data to their association?
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).
This article explores the corporate income tax (CIT) and personal income tax (PIT) treatment of financial transactions between a Latvian company and its owner (an individual) in two examples:
Companies have access to several reliefs that help reduce their corporate income tax (CIT) charge on dividends. This article answers the question of whether the legislation prescribes any order in which those reliefs may be taken or whether the taxpayer has a right to determine that order.
The autumn sees the State Revenue Service (SRS) sending requests to taxpayers for information on transactions making up their bank account turnover and discrepancies with the information available to the SRS. This article explores the process and practical communication with the SRS (more details in “Bank account turnover out of line with tax filings”).
Employment offences commonly lead to an administrative penalty, yet employers with no practical experience of the National Labour Office’s administrative offence proceedings do not always have a clear picture of how a penalty is determined and what principles apply. This article explores the main stages of a penalty and ways to challenge it.
High quality comparables are crucial when it comes to setting an arm’s length price in a transfer pricing (TP) analysis. A key factor in this process is making an informed choice about the dataset size, i.e. using comparable financials for one year or multiple years. This article explores key risks and factors to consider in setting an arm’s length price of transactions and using comparables for one or more years. We will be referring to the general rules of Latvian law and the TP guidelines issued by the OECD, with an example from case law.
On 9 September 2021 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on a dispute over the tax authority’s right to refuse a VAT refund if the taxable person fails to duly submit documents the authority has requested to prove the person’s refund claim is valid. This article explores CJEU findings and Latvian case law.
We have already written about the new Accounting Act, which was passed on 10 June 2021 and comes into force on 1 January 2022. The old Accounting Act and the Cabinet of Ministers’ Rule No. 585 of 21 October 2003, Bookkeeping and Accounting (“Rule 585”) will cease to apply as a result. New accounting rules will be issued to accompany the new Accounting Act. This article explores the content of the proposed rules and the time frame for adoption.
Transfer pricing (TP) rules laid down by section 15.2 of the Taxes and Duties Act effective from 1 January 2018 require that a taxpayer’s master file and local file, or only his local file, provide evidence that the TP applied in a related-party transaction (the “controlled transaction”) is arm’s length. Although there is no publicly available information about amounts the State Revenue Service (SRS) has charged for the lack or incompliance of TP documentation/ analysis of controlled transactions over the last three years, we are aware that those are being evaluated, mainly as part of the “Advise First!” principle, as we have written earlier. This article explores common substantial errors in TP documentation pointed out by an SRS official who attended a seminar the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised in May 2021.
There are a variety of available legal instruments for leaving a person’s estate to beneficiaries (including trusts, which are becoming popular in Latvia). This article explores three common solutions to the problem of inheritance in Latvia: gift, sale, and bequest. The best solution will be different in each situation, so this article aims to provide an overview of how the beneficiary (heir) or the grantor (testator) is taxed under each of these options. This article explores only Latvian tax resident individuals’ dealings with real estate (RE).
Debt assignments are widely used in business. A debt assignment allows the company to turn its trade receivables into working capital. The sale (assignment) of a debt is increasingly taken to mean the transfer of a debt arising from consumer credit to licensed debt recovery service providers in order to recover the debt out of court. In practice, debt assignment has a wide range of uses – it is also used by lenders that take the original creditor’s place, including individuals investing in lending platforms.
The VAT treatment of debt assignments is not straightforward and may vary according to the characteristics of each assignment. It is also a misconception that debt assignments do not require an evaluation of their VAT treatment. This article explores how debt assignments are treated for VAT purposes.
If a company’s debtor has been removed from the Commerce Register, can the company write off an account receivable from that debtor with no corporate income tax (CIT) consequences? This article explores things to consider when it comes to writing off a debt like this, and what documents the company must hold.
The Public Benefit Organisations (PBO) Act defines a donation but the concept of sponsoring remains undefined. In practice, companies that sponsor events organised by PBOs might wonder whether sponsoring has the same tax treatment as a donation. This article explores the tax implications of sponsoring PBOs.
Latvia has offered a temporary residence permit (TRP) in exchange for investment for many years. A number of businessmen and investors found this to be an attractive proposition, as it allowed them to successfully start or continue their business in Latvia and freely travel across Europe. As is often the case, however, the devil is in the details. The question of taxes can ruin your business plan and form a basis for cancelling your TRP.
A Latvian company in a vertically structured group often receives dividends from subsidiaries and pays them on to its owners. Such flow-through dividends qualify for a special relief under the Corporate Income Tax (CIT) Act: if certain conditions are met those dividends are taxed only once even if tax has been paid abroad. In practice various situations may arise, for instance, a dividend is received and paid in different periods, the profit may not have been taxed in the payer’s country, the Latvian company receives the dividend net, i.e. after tax has been withheld in the payer’s country. This article explores some relevant examples.
Companies often provide various intragroup services for optimisation purposes. Whether such companies are governed by the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism and Proliferation Financing Act (the “Act”) is a question that has always come under a great deal of scrutiny. Effective from 12 July 2021, section 3 of the Act contains subsection 6, which prescribes exclusions and answers questions that group companies tend to ask when assessing whether they are governed by the Act. This article explores how intragroup services qualify for statutory exclusions.
In July 2021 the OECD released Latvia’s Stage 2 Peer Review Report findings obtained in peer-reviewing its progress with implementing the Minimum Standard of BEPS Action 14 for improving tax dispute resolution mechanisms. Stage 2 aims to monitor the implementation of recommendations arising from Latvia’s Stage 1 Peer Review Report. Overall the Stage 2 report finds that Latvia has eliminated most of the flaws found in the Stage 1 report.