Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has become an essential business tool that helps companies optimise their processes, improve efficiencies and cut costs. However, to better understand GenAI’s impact on finances, it’s important to consider the cost of this tool from different aspects.

A civil lawsuit involving a PwC Legal client’s dispute with an insurer over who owns a cash deposit has ended in payment of the full claim, with recovery of cash and interest on arrears and reimbursement of litigation costs, totalling EUR 115,029.32. The claimant’s interests were represented by Nataļja Puriņa, an attorney-at-law with ZAB PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal SIA.

Cross-border work done remotely has become very popular among digital nomads after the Covid-19 pandemic. However, an employer accepting or offering this option may face administrative obstacles and tax risks, one of which is the risk of having a permanent establishment (PE). This article explores the reasons for the growing popularity of remote work and the inherent PE risks.

Electrical vehicles (EVs) are gaining traction. According to the Auto Association, Latvia set a record in new EV registrations in 2023: 8.8% of total registered new passenger vehicles were electrical. Episode 41 of our podcast features Viktorija Lavrova, a PwC tax manager, and Aleksandrs Afanasjevs, a tax consultant, explaining what tax aspects should be considered if a company buys an EV, and whether the employer can reimburse EV charging costs if it’s being used for private as well as business purposes.

In this article we explore Ruling C-606/22 from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the entitlement to a refund of value added tax (VAT) where the taxable person has applied a higher rate of VAT than what the law prescribes. This ruling is important because it explains how the VAT directive’s principles should be applied in practice where a cash-register receipt has been issued to the customer, which is practically impossible to amend in order to show the correct rate of VAT and to refund the overpaid tax to the customer.

It’s been a while since the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) drafted its Pillar I report dealing with various issues around the growing economic globalisation and digitalisation. It’s also increasingly difficult to determine countries’ rights to charge corporate income tax on the profits of multinational enterprise groups. While the project is basically geared towards digital business, one of the solutions the OECD offers may simplify transfer pricing (TP) for a particular group of transactions: baseline marketing and distribution activities.

One of the signals indicating an organisation needs diversity management is a high level of subjective feelings of discrimination or injustice among its staff. Low innovation capacity or high staff turnover can also suggest its diversity and inclusion (D&I) practices are not successful. Yet these are just a few of the reasons why organisations turn to diversity management as a key priority.

In today’s competitive job market, the battle to attract and retain the best talent is more challenging than ever before. An effective employer branding strategy that is aligned with your corporate values, culture, work environment and benefits will help you stay ahead of your competitors. Not only are organisations with a strong employer brand attracting more applicants but the pool they get to choose from is higher quality, leading to better hires and lower turnover rates.

In late 2023 the Ministry of Finance (MOF) drew up an informational report on plans to improve the operations of the State Revenue Service (SRS). The report suggested appropriate measures, including changes to the SRS organisational structure and revising the types of subordination. The guidelines and the goal of the reform are consistent with the SRS long-term strategy, which provides for improving its operations to become a more efficient tax and customs authority with the emphasis on encouraging cooperation with taxpayers.

The Green Deal aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent. We have undertaken to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 55% (compared to the 1990 levels) by 2030 and achieve climate neutrality by 2050. To meet these targets and mitigate the impact on climate change, countries and businesses need to cut down their GHG emissions significantly.

Over 70% of 3,522 business and information technology leaders say they have made significant cybersecurity improvements since 2020, according to PwC’s 2023 survey “Global Digital Trust Insights”. They have done all the right things: re-evaluated their cyber-risks, revised their security documentation, improved their ability to defend against ransomware, and enhanced their user awareness of information security. However, the two years of war, 2022 and 2023, have changed the nature of cybercrime. There were not many complaints about politically and ideologically motivated attacks in 2021, yet such attacks have represented a significant percentage since the war broke out in 2022. The activity of threat actors using their knowledge for political or ideological reasons has remained high and compares with the activity of ransomware and other commercially motivated attackers.

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.

All kinds of things happen in life, for example the original document has gone missing. A person used to hold the signed original of a contract that was entered into ten years ago and is still valid. It was scanned at some point in time and retained in readable form but for some reason is no longer available.

While rules on platform work have yet to be passed, the legal frameworks of the EU lawmaker and of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) are living parallel lives. March 2024 saw new yet converging reference points from both directions, and the sharp-eyed reader can start wondering whether platform workers (food delivery couriers) are employees or self-employed.

On 22 February 2024 the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) published a draft report that includes proposals for a transfer pricing (TP) directive drafted by the European Commission. The ECON draft report generally supports the Commission’s proposal to align the TP requirements across the EU, yet it recommends a number of crucial amendments. This article explores the ECON amendments that could affect Latvian TP requirements, too.

Looking at the ever-changing financial management space, you might think that traditional tools such as Excel should gradually become obsolete and be replaced with advanced software solutions that rationalise processes and build efficiencies. However, despite a whole range of financial technologies being readily available and optimally applied, organisations keep using Excel in their day-to-day work.

Recent years have seen the State Revenue Service (SRS) increasingly focus on transfer pricing (TP) risks, particularly management services and business support services rendered within a multinational enterprise (MNE) group. These services between related companies aim to promote a group member’s business, to cut costs it would have incurred in performing the particular functions on its own, or to offer some other comparable benefit from the synergy of doing business together. Yet there is also the other side of the coin – TP and corporate income tax (CIT) risks may arise if the recipient of services is unable to prove they were actually received and the fee was justified.

The Value Added Tax (VAT) Act prescribes a special scheme for charging VAT on supplies of second-hand goods. These include a variety of tangible items, such as cars, machinery, office equipment, furniture and other goods that are fit for future use in the same form with no modification or after repairs and that are not works of art, collectors’ items or antiques. A taxable person selling second-hand goods will normally charge VAT on the full price. However, certain supplies of second-hand goods can be exempt from VAT or taxable under a special scheme on the difference between the acquisition cost and the selling price (a margin scheme for second-hand goods as per section 138 of the VAT Act). This article explores what conditions have to be met before section 138 can be applied and when an exemption is available.

Diversity in organisations does not primarily mean differences in people’s visual appearance, gender or skin colour. Organisations have both visible and invisible diversity that can be encountered at individual, group and department level. While the potential and challenges are lying hidden in what’s invisible, we are used to measuring and accounting for what’s visible. Why is this an issue? And what risks does it entail? This article explores the essence of diversity management, risks and the initial minimum policy to eliminate them.

Many companies are considering accepting virtual currency or cryptocurrency in payment for their goods or services. Some are even considering buying virtual currency as a financial instrument. What is virtual currency? And how do we account for it properly? This article explores the essence of and accounting for virtual currency.

Belarus has unilaterally decided to suspend the operation of certain articles of its double tax treaties (DTTs) with 27 countries from 1 June 2024. This article explores the status of the Belarus-Latvia DTT and the list of affected countries.

Baltic CEOs are again cautiously optimistic about economy growth over the next 12 months. More CEOs recognise that competitiveness mostly depends on their company’s ability to transform, automate processes and adopt new technology, according to PwC’s Baltic CEO Survey 2024.

European Sustainability Reporting Standards (EU) 2023/2772 (‘ESRS’) require companies to disclose information on their energy consumption and structure. This article explores the disclosure requirement and why you should view it through the prism of opportunities.

Companies tend to have two or more digitalisation activities running in parallel – they’re digitalising their document flows, invoices and production equipment data, automating their supply chain, and setting up new systems. These are all important and necessary activities that make your company more competitive, cut the amount of manual work, and make your staff happier. New digitalisation projects are springing up like mushrooms, and it’s getting harder to keep pushing them all forward at the same time. It’s also difficult to abandon a project because every one of them promises a good result for your company. Your staff get burned out and can no longer cope with their day-to-day work and take part in all those projects. The seemingly easiest solution is to have your board choose which of the projects will go on and which will not. That’s not what happens, though, and expecting such help is not justified for a number of reasons.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the making available on the Union market and the export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation and repealing Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 came into force on 29 June 2023.

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).

Companies are sometimes unsure whether a transaction affecting them qualifies as the transfer of a business as a going concern (TOGC). This is a crucial question in identifying a number of potential risks, including VAT liabilities. If a TOGC has occurred, the transaction is not subject to VAT if the acquirer is registered for VAT and continues a business that does not involve asset stripping or liquidating the company.