On March 1, the first day for submission of income declarations to the State Revenue Service (VID), more than 62,400 submitted their income declarations, as confirmed by VID director general Ieva Jaunzeme.
“62 414 income declarations have been submitted so far. In 2020, the same amount was reached as of 10:00 a. m. on the same day,” said Jaunzeme.
She also said the Electronic Declaration System (EDS) was functioning fine at the moment.
At the same time, Jaunzeme said that because VID was also paying downtime benefits, there might be short pauses with EDS functionality.
“Those pauses may not be long. However, if we receive a report the EDS is down, this is most likely because we have requested information to pay downtime benefits,” explained the head of VID.
Residents required by law to submit their income declarations have to do this within three months – until June 1. Residents who wish to recover justified expenditures are able to do this within three years.
At the same time, VID has shut down all of its customer service centers across Latvia for the duration of the state of emergency. This is why VID urges residents to submit income declarations electronically.
VID also urges residents to not submit declarations in the first days of March, because multiple simultaneous logins may cause the system to slow down or go offline temporarily.
VID website’s section Annual Income Declaration contains a video tutorial and other helpful tips. On March 9, VID will organize a free online seminar on using EDS and properly filling in and submitting income declarations.
The people do not have sufficient skills or experience with EDS may turn to their relatives for assistance.
VID also recommends using the free mobile app Attaisnotie izdevumi to submit income declarations. This app allows the user to combine all payment documents and information about them into one file.
Submission of income declaration for 2020 until June 1 is compulsory (if income has exceeded EUR 62,800 as of July 1) for residents, from whom tax difference formed as a result of progressive tax or differentiated non-taxable minimum, which needs to be transferred to the state budget.
It is also compulsory to submit income declarations if a person performs some economic activity, such as renting real estate or receiving income from professional activity, if income was gained abroad. One exception is when the said income was earned in an EU member state and this income was applied with relevant income tax.
It is optional to submit income declaration to recover justifiable expenditures not only for 2020, but 2019 and 2018 as well. Income declarations will be allowed to be submitted for 2017 until June 16. (BNN/Business World Magazine)
