Levits urges Finance Ministry to set up task force to analyze recent tax changes

RIGA - The Finance Ministry could form a task force to decide whether changes in taxes for self-employed and part-time employees need to be revised, President Egils Levits said in an interview with Riga TV24.

The latest tax changes are necessary to achieve that all people pay taxes, said Levits. Tax evaders live at the expense of people who honesty pay all taxes. Therefore the objective of the reform is to ensure that all residents pay taxes, but some aspects of the reform have not been thought out well, the president said.

According to Levits, the Finance Ministry could set up a small task force to consider all the arguments for and against the tax changes, and analyze each specific situation. After every major reform, experts must find out whether any corrections are necessary.

Residents should not have to deal with overly complicated systems in order to pay taxes. The current mechanism may be too complicated, believes Levits. If Latvian lawmakers cannot find a way to achieve that all residents pay taxes, perhaps they should look at how this is done in other countries and learn from their experience.