At the start of the year tax debts and debts declared by various companies were registered for more than 51 600 legal persons in Latvia.
Compared with the situation in January 2022 and January 2023, the number of companies in debts has increase by 15.9%. Looking at the amount of tax debts and debts declared by companies, the total number of debtors has increased by 15.9% over the course of the year. General tax and debt-wise, however, the number of debtors has increased by 46.%, according to data compiled by Okredo open source platform.
Looking at the number of legal persons debtors, at the beginning of the year
the majority of debtors were in the wholesale and retail trade sector – 16.4%;
professional, scientific and technical services (8.42%); construction (7.8%); processing industry (6.98%); as well as agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors (5.27%).
General debt volume-wise the situation was the worst in wholesale and retail trade, processing industry, construction, accommodation and catering services, as well as transport and storage sectors.
«The existence of tax debs is only one alarm bells for partners of various businesses to stay safe. Changes with the number of employees is another red flag that indicates negative trends, as is information about lawsuits and ties to economically inactive legal persons. Most of this data, which may indicate that a company is in financial difficulties, is publicly accessible,» reports Okredo manager Gerda Jurkoniene.
The biggest increase of the number of debtors came in January 2023 and was observed in electricity, gas supply, heating and air conditioning sectors. The number of legal persons in debt in these sectors has increased by 37.3%; followed by mining and quarrying sector (+32.3%); water supply, sewer and waste management sector (+23.5%); IT sector (+17.8%) and construction sector (+15.2%).
Water supply, sewage, waste management sector is in the lead general debt increase-wise,
as the debt in this sector has increased by record-high 3 281%!
High debts are still registered in the accommodation and catering services sector (+179%), mining and quarrying sector (+171%), real estate sector (+105%), as well as electricity, gas supply, heating and air conditioning sector (+80%).
Okredo open source platform is active in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. It provides updated data from various registers, tax administration and employment institutions, court administrations, as well as provides financial accounts and other useful business-related information.
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