EU Commission approves Latvian wage subsidy program for businesses hit by Covid-19 crisis

RIGA - Latvia has received the European Commission's approval for the launch of a support program under which the State Revenue Service will start disbursing wage subsidies to companies hit by the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, LETA was told at the Economics Ministry. 

The wage subsidies will be available to companies for partial compensation of their expenses on employees' wages, self-employed persons, owners of micro-enterprises and individual business owners for compensation of their income lost due to the crisis, as well as payers of patent fees. To receive the wage subsidies, employees, self-employed persons and payers of patent fees are required to have interoperable Covid-19 certificates proving vaccination or recovery from the infection. 

The companies and entrepreneurs whose businesses have been seriously affected by the  Covid-19 restrictions have until January 15, 2022 to file their wage subsidy applications with the Revenue Service via the Electronic Declaration System (EDS). 

The State Revenue Service started accepting requests for working capital grants and wage subsidies on November 22. A large part of the applications have already been processed, so on December 17, the Revenue Service will start providing the working capital grants and the disbursement of wage subsidies will begin next week.