Today, 4 September, the management of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) met with parties forming the coalition to discuss planned changes in the taxation system. During the meeting, an agreement was reached regarding the tasks to be performed in order to increase competitiveness in the taxation system and in the related labour force costs.
The LCCI points out that the purpose is to create a regionally competitive taxation system in Latvia all the while ensuring a gradual increase of the collected tax amount and ensuring additional economic activity and attraction of investments. Likewise, a more rapid decrease in the labour force tax burden is needed to ensure competitiveness of Latvian companies across the Baltic and Nordic region.
The LCCI believes that the government should promptly start work on the development of a plan defining specific steps of how to reach the goal in 3 years — more competitive labour force tax rates and labour force costs in the Baltic region, engagement of the labour force and promotion of tax payments.
The President of LTRK Aigars Rostovskis: “Today, we had a positive meeting with representatives of coalition parties regarding the prepared changes in the taxation policy. The LCCI negotiations with the government and the political parties have yielded results; the planned changes promise to reduce labour force taxes, thus achieving that Latvia has the most competitive taxation regime in the region.
Vice president of the LCCI Elīna Rītiņa: “It is important that we have reached a common vision, namely, that the direction assumed by the government towards reducing labour force taxes is only the first step to promoting competitiveness and that the government partners in the upcoming years are ready to pull forces together to take the next steps towards reducing labour costs and drawing those tax payers, who at this time are not yet fully engaged. We reiterated that, as regards the introduction of minimum social contributions, it is important to resolve a range of unresolved technical issues and to ensure their gradual implementation.”