In an inspection case of actions of the State Revenue Service (VID), Latvia’s Ombudsman Juris Jansons found that this institution has illegally filled residents’ income declarations and calculated taxes on behalf of taxpayers, as reported by the Ombudsman’s Office.
Such actions from VID negatively impacts the interests of many of Latvia’s residents.
In 2021 the law provided VID new authority – submit income declarations on behalf of residents based on information available to VID and perform relevant tax calculation. This applies to cases when taxpayers were required to submit annual income declarations but did not. This does not mean VID needs to inform taxpayers who are required to submit annual income declaration but who have not done this by a specific deadline.
According to the information provided by residents to the ombudsman,
they found out about VID’s new authority when tax collection commenced.
The ombudsman uncovered in an inspection that VID performed automatic declaration filling and tax calculation late, in violation of the terms outlined in the law.
Between 2018 and 2020 VID had illegally filled in more than 100 000 income declarations.
It is important to mention the institution admits the violation. VID mentioned the spread of Covid-19 as the main reason for this, because human resources and time were mainly dedicated towards calculation and payment of benefits, as well as adaptation of VID information system.
«We are unsatisfied with the explanations from the State Revenue Service. These and other similar arguments cannot serve as an excuse to violate the law. The institutions should have been more responsible and clear in its explanations about various new solutions or the institution’s own authority in acting on behalf of taxpayers,» stresses Ombudsman Juris Jansons.
People have to be in the know that their income declarations will be submitted and taxes calculated on their behalf if they don’t do it themselves.
The ombudsman invites VID to annul all unlawful decisions made so far.
The ombudsman believes every year before the 1st of March VID should provide expansive explanations to members of society about the mandatory nature of the requirement to submit income declarations and the consequences of not doing in time. The Ministry of Finance, on the other hand, needs to assess the responsibility of VID officials who allowed the rights and interests of taxpayers to be violated.
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