On Thursday, the 31st of October, the Latvian Saeima passed in the final reading the new Law on the State Revenue Service and associated amendments to three more laws in order to implement reorganisation of the service.
In accordance with the reorganisation, it is planned to separate from VID the offices that do not provide services to clients. From now on, the service’s main objective will be provision of services, consultations and support to taxpayers on topics like taxes and customs.
Because VID will not longer be responsible for uncovering, investigating and preventing criminal acts in the financial sector, these functions will be passed on to the newly-composed Tax and Customs Police.
The functions of the Internal Security Office will be passed on to the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB).
Along with the changes in the structure of the VID, it is planned to improve the model of cooperation between the tax administration and the public, including using the opportunities provided by digital transformation, as well as working more closely with non-governmental organizations in assessing the issues within the competence of the tax administration.
Amendments also improve regulation on the use of information systems and databases under the control of the VID.
A new VID law was drafted and adopted, as the planned changes would affect the largest part of the text of the existing Law on the State Revenue Service and the regulation would become difficult to understand, according to the annotation to the draft law.
The new law will come into force in 2026.