Cultural workers will have eligible expenses; for recipients of small salaries – special rules / Article / LSM.lv

Interview with the Minister of Finance Jānis ReirsJānis Ramāns00:00 / 18:12

—

Reirs said that the Ministry of Finance has agreed with the people working in the cultural sector on the details, resolving the main issue related to the norms of eligible or eligible expenses.

“We will leave 50% or 25% of the expenditures for the categories that have not been documented. If there are expenditures, then justifying them can be higher,” Reirs said.

Until now, the plan did not provide for eligible expenditure.

The politician explained that several existing alternative tax regimes will now be transformed into two: in one, people will pay taxes in the general tax regime; the second will be the self-employed scheme, which will also be divided into two parts: one will be a deductible escrow account, and the other will be an option to justify expenditure, and then taxes will only be payable on the remaining amount.

Of the remaining amount, the tax increase will be approximately 5%, as the difference between those paying under the general tax regime and those paying under the alternative regime is almost three times larger. Of the taxes paid, 80% will go to social contributions and 20% to personal income tax. Thus, the government hopes to ensure that, as far as possible, all Latvians are socially secure.

Those self-employed who are unable to earn even the minimum wage will be able to pay only 10% of their income after receiving a social service opinion, instead of the € 170 expected.

“Assessing this situation, the government acknowledged that if a person earns 200 euros, he must be in the eyes of social services. Maybe he needs help, social correction, treatment for addictions, if a person can not get a job to have at least a minimum wage,” Reirs said.

He stressed that the State Employment Agency offers vacancies where at least a third of the salary level is above 1000 euros.

The minister said that according to the Ministry of Welfare, people who would not be able to pay the minimum contribution of 170 euros could be between 15,00 and 17,000. The politician added that currently more than 250,000 make less than the minimum social contribution. “We cannot forget that there is also a large share of the shadow economy here,” he added, saying that employers often promise higher wages but at the same time deprive social security.

Mr Reirs also emphasized that, following the entry into force of the rule on 1 July of the following year, downtime benefits would be paid on the basis of information on taxes paid. The norm has yet to be considered in the last reading in the Saeima.

CONTEXT:

Next year, royalty recipients, the self-employed and micro-enterprise taxpayers will have to pay social contributions. It is intended for all workers to be socially secure.

The Minister for Welfare pointed out that people who work under alternative tax regimes and do not receive the minimum wage will have to turn to the social serviceto avoid paying social security contributions. Representatives of the cultural industry for several reasons does not agree with the proposed changes and is have repeatedly spoken out against them, also holding a protest flash “The wall of misunderstanding“.

The government agreed next year to reduce the social tax by one percentage point to 34.09%, as well as set the minimum social insurance contributions for people who receive less than the minimum social wage and for the self-employed, which will be paid by employers or the employees themselves.

Next year it is planned to increase the minimum wage to 500 euros, increase the guaranteed minimum income to 109 euros, reduce mandatory social insurance contributions by one percentage point, introduce from 1 July mandatory minimum social contribution u.c.