Over the past several months, Latvia has introduced immigration and tax policies to attract certain qualified workers from outside Latvia to come to the country to live and work.
In order to attract a highly-qualified labour force, and promote commercial activity and economic development, on 29 June 2022, amendments to the Immigration Law came into force, that, among other things, introduced a digital nomad visa.1
On 28 June 2023, amendments were adopted into the law "On Personal Income Tax."2 Now, citizens and residents of OECD member states (hereinafter, “citizens of OECD”) who have obtained a digital nomad visa have the right to choose to apply a 15-percent personal income tax (hereinafter, “PIT”) rate to income earned in Latvia on the basis of being in possession of a Latvia-government-issued digital nomad visa (instead of progressive rates, which go up to 31 percent).
As individuals increasingly choose to work remotely in Latvia from another country, such remote work has acquired a very important role in the current labour market.
This GMS Flash Alert summarises recent changes to Latvia’s country’s immigration rules and the tax rules intended to attract so-called digital nomads and remote workers.