If a person under the influence of bailiffs and debt collectors asks his employer to transfer his salary to a bank card registered in another European Union member state, such as Revolut or Paysera, then accessing this debtor’s salary from Latvia is troublesome. This is recognized by the Council of Bailiffs for the program “360TV ZIŅneši”.
The requirements set by a sworn bailiff are binding on all persons in the territory of our country, but a Latvian sworn bailiff cannot seize funds that are in an account registered in foreign countries.
“Execution of the court ruling takes place at the national level of each country. A bailiff who practices in Latvia is not entitled to practice in, for example, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany or other foreign countries. If the debtor has, for example, a Revolut account in England, then the Latvian bailiff cannot enforce it money collection, but it can be done by an English bailiff,” – Andris Spore, deputy chairman of the Council of Sworn Bailiffs of Latvia, explains to 360TV reporter Skaidrīte Nitiša.
If the creditor has information that the debtor has an account abroad, then he must act himself and ask the foreign bailiffs to help recover the debt. “If the account is outside of Latvia, the person can go to the specific member state, submit the necessary documents to the bailiff of that country, and only the bailiff of that country may direct the recovery of the funds in this account”, says Spore.
A creditor trying to recover his debt faces different types of difficulties if the debtor’s account is in a foreign country. The procedure is more complicated, time-consuming and expensive to seize the debtor’s assets. Andris Spore does not hide that everything depends on the amount of the debt. Creditors evaluate whether it is worth investing money in hiring foreign debt collectors.
Creditors are not always in a hurry to ask foreign debt collectors for help, even in those countries where they demand payment for both work and interest on the debt amount. Quick access to the account is sometimes crucial to ensure that the debtor has not depleted his assets by the time the creditor has foreclosed, but the creditor has little chance of quickly getting the debtor’s foreign bank account blocked. As the program “360TV ZIŅneši” found out, debtors often deftly avoid enforcement measures and quickly move their funds from a bank account in one country to an account in another country. Then the debt collection process in that country starts all over again. In the end, the creditor is often only able to recover a small portion of the debt.
Sometimes there is apparently a lot of money in the debtor’s account, but the bailiffs cannot make deductions. Each member state has its own restrictions and also the minimum amount of funds that the debtor must keep.
The difference is with respect to tax debt. There are already other international agreements. If a natural or legal person has a tax debt, the State Revenue Service begins to act. This can direct the recovery against the debtor’s account abroad, including Revolut, Wise, Paysera or an account in another electronic money institution, where income is often hidden by debtors who avoid paying taxes. There are many banks and electronic money institutions in the world that allow you to open an account remotely. Santa Garanča, director of the Tax Payment Promotion Office of the SRS, told “360TV NEWS” that the most important thing is not which credit institution the account is in, but what relations and contractual obligations Latvia has with the specific country. All European member states cooperate and provide information to each other, there are also agreements with countries outside the European Union. If the tax debtor does not have an account either in Latvia or in any member state of the European Union, but in, for example, the United Kingdom or Norway, even then the debtors cannot hide from the SRS.
The tax collection process for natural persons is said to be long. Even if the debtor thinks that if you don’t know anything about him for a year or two, then the debt will not be paid, but it is not the case.
Santa Garanča: “If a person “lives in the shadows” and hides from the administrators until reaching retirement age, then when the person starts receiving a pension and the income becomes legal, both SRS collectors and bailiffs turn against the debtor.”
2023-10-03 18:32:17
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