Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Transport

Regional Development and Local Government Affairs Minister Edgars Zalans (People's Party) strongly opposed the draft regulations, underlining that they were not prepared well enough and would not ensure collection of the expected fiscal revenues. Zalans announced that he opposed the regulations and urged other ministers to vote against them, reports LETA.

Also, Foreign Affairs Minister Maris Riekstins (People's Party) spoke against the new regulations. Three more ministers abstained from voting, but eventually the regulations were supported with a majority of votes.

The new regulations stipulate that employers will have to prepare and submit to the State Revenue Service a report on the use of company cars for personal benefit by employees quarterly.

In case the State Revenue Service will not receive such a report by the set deadline, it will be assumed that no company cars have been used by the company employees for personal benefit in the quarterly report period.

The State Revenue Service will carry out controls over the use of company cars for personal benefit and, in case of establishing tax evasion, it will fine the employers.

The tax rate will be calculated based on the size of the car's engine – the larger the engine, the higher the tax will be.