EUR 152 million will be available from Latvia’s state budget to support businesses and provide wage subsidies, according to the information submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers by the Ministry of Economics.
It is planned to spend EUR 120 million a month on current asset support. Wage subsidies will cost EUR 32 million a month. This amount of support is planned by the Ministry of Economics between 1 October and 31 November.
Employers are able to apply for support to partially compensate wages of their employees. The option is also open to self-employed persons, including micro-enterprise tax payers and patent payers.
However, support will be available only for employees and self-employed persons and patent payers who have at least commenced the vaccination process.
At the same time, support will not be paid for work done in the following sectors: agriculture, forestry and fishing, mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, water supply, waste management and remediation activities, construction, publishing, telecommunications, computer programming, consultancy and related activities and information services, as well as financial and insurance activities, manpower and staffing, landscaping and maintenance activities, combined office administrative service activities, photocopying, document preparation and other specialized office support activities, operation of information call centres, public administration and defence, gambling and betting, and public, activities of political and other organizations.
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One of the requirements for aforementioned aid is for tax payer’s income from operations to have declined 20% or 30% between July 2021 and September 2021 when compared to the same period of last year. This income decline needs to have been caused by epidemiological restrictions on business operations.
The support provided to employers for their employees will be equal to 50% of their declared average monthly net wage for the aforementioned period, but no larger than EUR 500 for a calendar month.
Employers will be obligated to pay the difference between the received support and the wage amount for the outlined period.
Self-employer persons, including micro-enterprise tax payers, will be paid 50% of the person’s average income from business operations or royalties for the period of time between July 2021 and September 2021, but no more than EUR 500 per calendar month.
Patent payers will be paid EUR 250 if the patent had been active for at least three months before the start of the state of emergency.
Residents will be able to apply for support at the State Revenue Service between 25 November and 25 December 2021 for each respective month. Employers sign up their employees for support. VID will transfer the support amount to the account of the listed employee and will inform the employer of the transfer. VID will also check the vaccination status and exchange data about employees with the National Health Service.
Benefit recipients will be paid wage subsidies only for vaccinated employees
