On this page we have summarised some FAQs and will be posting some useful bits of information with regular updates. Although the present situation around the world makes us all ask various questions and suffer inconveniences, it is still possible to continue doing business with digital solutions and online tools.
The PwC network includes over 284,000 people working in 155 countries so we can learn and use the best crisis management practices of our Asian and European colleagues, from business and financial advisory to operational and technical solutions, so feel free to ask for our expert advice.
PwC's COVID-19 Navigator
Take the diagnostic to assess the potential impact to your business and gauge your readiness to respond.
Cybersecurity
To ensure business continuity, employees are now working remotely and connecting to sensitive systems through whatever Internet resources are available to them.
An employee’s virtual workplace is unprotected until a secure connection is made. If their computer is not covered by their company’s security systems and controls, this significantly affects the mechanism for protecting sensitive business data.
- Are my company’s solutions and security systems able to ensure uninterrupted security monitoring and protection for the virtual workplaces?
- Are my employees informed and trained about potential threats that may arise from working remotely?
- Are my company’s preventive security controls adequate to keep my sensitive data protected?
- Is the connection between the virtual workplace and the infrastructure protected and monitored?
Contact our specialists:
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Kristaps Zarins
Manager, Cyber security and privacy services, PwC Latvia
Tel: +371 67094400
Email: kristaps.zarins@pwc.com
Information and communication technology
- New e-services aimed at reducing direct contact with customers
- Analysis of critical systems with recommendations
- Analysis of supplier contracts with recommendations
Contact our specialists:
Taxes
- Dismissals, personal income tax and national social insurance issues
- Tax treatment of Latvian expatriates returning to Latvia
- Taxation (exemption) of wastage and write-offs
- Extending the time limit for paying a tax debt
- VAT treatment of bad debts
- Avoiding input VAT deduction adjustments where acquired goods or services cannot be used for making taxable supplies because of COVID-19
- Calculating VAT correctly where a prepayment has been received but the goods or services are not supplied
- Reducing the amount of VAT on a bad debt
- Preparing an application for a tax payment deadline extension and managing negotiations with the State Revenue Service
- Preparing an application for payment of a late fee where the State Revenue Service has wrongfully held up a tax refund beyond the statutory time limit
Contact our specialists:
Sanita Ansone
Tax reporting, accounting and strategy manager
Tel. +371 67094400
Email: sanita.ansone@pwc.com
Vita Sakne
Senior manager
of the family business services sector
Tel. +371 67094400
Email: vita.sakne@pwc.com
Finance
- Finance restructuring (refinancing, restructuring, and raising funds)
- Analysing and modelling future cash flows
- Optimising current assets
- Reducing business costs
Contact our specialists:
Legal matters:
- How do I document idle time? How do I receive state aid for idle time?
- What do I do if an employee ignores the quarantine requirements – suspend, reprimand, dismiss, or take some other measures?
- How do I talk to my employees about terminating their employment contracts?
Contact our specialists:
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Benno Butulis
Attorney at law and head of PwC Legal in Latvia
Tel. +371 67094400
Email: benno.butulis@pwc.com
Other matters:
- Planning human resource management to ride out the crisis
- Ensuring business continuity and competences needed during the crisis with existing staff capacity
Contact our specialists:
Business restructuring and M&A
- Independent business assessment
- Project management and engaging subject-matter experts
- Mergers and acquisitions
Contact our specialists:
The legal protection procedure
- Are all expenses (including departmental) necessary?
- Is my company’s credit policy up to date?
- Have all of the company’s possible financial risks been identified and analysed?
- Has my company prepared a plan for mitigating the identified financial risks?
- Have all the actual financial figures been reconciled with the budget?
- Is my company able to cover its short-term and long-term liabilities?
- Is my company eligible for state aid for overcoming the COVID-19 crisis?
- What state aid would be the most appropriate for my company?
- What are other possible steps in short-term and long-term business restructuring to overcome the crisis?
Legal support
- Is it possible to postpone my accounts payable to creditors?
- What are possible consequences if a company defaults on its accounts payable to creditors?
- What do I do if a default is expected soon?
Other questions
- Is the head of the unit/department able to help the CEO or the CFO carry out the necessary tasks and overcome the crisis?
Contact our specialists:
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Benno Butulis
Attorney at law and head of PwC Legal in Latvia
Tel. +371 67094400
Email: benno.butulis@pwc.com
Māris Butāns
Managing Senior Associate of PwC Legal in Latvia
Tel. +371 26578281; +371 6709 4400
Email: maris.butans@pwc.com
Ričards Freimanis
PwC’s Flexible Legal Resources manager
Tel. +37125919478; +371 67094400
Email: ricards.freimanis@pwc.com
Competition law
- Opportunities and risks of competitors making a concerted effort (within associations) to mitigate the adverse effects
- Raising prices on the first necessities
- Selling goods below cost
- Continuity of essential raw material supplies
Contact our specialists:
Māris Butāns
Managing Senior Associate of PwC Legal in Latvia
Tel. +371 26578281; +371 6709 4400
Email: maris.butans@pwc.com
Controversy and dispute resolution
- Can a debtor simply declare default because of force majeure?
- How does a creditor assess whether a debtor’s rescission of their agreement is lawful?
- How do I correctly remind the debtor of their obligation to perform the contract?
- How does a creditor agree to postpone repayment or to divide it into instalments to mitigate the risk of future default?
Contact our specialists:
Supplier relations
- Is it possible to seize goods and to not pass them to the consignee until the consignor pays? What is the procedure for seizing goods?
- Can a supplier ask to change a post-paid contract to a pre-paid one? Can the supplier refuse to supply goods if the customer does not agree?
- Should the customer agree to the supplier’s demand for changing from post-paid to pre-paid? What do I do if a supplier refuses to supply goods if the contract is not so changed? Does the supplier have this right?sības?
Contact our specialists:
Benno Butulis
PwC Legal Latvia Attorney at law
Tel.+371 28312721; +371 67094400
Email: benno.butulis@pwc.com
State aid for businesses
In this section we will be posting and regularly updating information about how businesses can receive support from the State:
- State aid for employers for paying sick notes
- A credit guarantee programme
- Tax relief
Useful links
- https://likumi.lv/ta/id/313680-noteikumi-par-dikstaves-pabalstu-pasnodarbinatam-personam-kuras-skarusi-covid-19-izplatiba
- Industries facing significantly impaired financial conditions because of COVID-19: http://m.likumi.lv/doc.php?id=313428
- http://tap.mk.gov.lv/lv/mk/tap/?pid=40485074&mode=mk&date=2020-03-17
- https://www.altum.lv/en/services/businesses-covid-19/working-capital-loan-covid-19/about/
- https://www.altum.lv/en/services/businesses-covid-19/loan-holidays-guarantee/about/
- https://www.vid.gov.lv/lv/covid-19
Articles:
State aid measures for taxpayers in emergency circumstances
On 6 November an emergency situation was again announced in Latvia, with a number of restrictions significantly affecting taxpayers’ business. The current state aid mechanism has been devised according to the guidelines adopted in the spring, but there are a number of differences we should consider to understand what aid measures are available to taxpayers this time round.
Working from home during Covid-19: employment income taxes
Travel restrictions due to Covid-19 are affecting not only our plans to relax abroad but also trips we take for business purposes. For some workers this means having their regular business trips cancelled and spending more time videoconferencing, while others have their normal place of work changed. We can work from home for foreign as well as local companies. This article explores some aspects of employment income taxation for employees physically working abroad because of pandemic-related restrictions.
Covid-19: transfer pricing impact
An adverse economic environment poses certain difficulties in maintaining transfer pricing (“TP”) policies. However, a global economic crisis does not cancel the requirement that controlled transactions be arm’s length. Following our article on Covid-19 and financial transactions, this one explores some other implications of the pandemic for TP outcomes and provides suggestions for TP analysis.
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