Cabinet Regulation No. 333 of 27 June 2023, Regulation Regarding Low-Tax or Tax-Free Countries and Territories (hereinafter - the Regulation), has been developed to ensure an adoption of the conclusion of the EU Council of 5 December 2017 "List of the European Union with jurisdictions that do not cooperate for tax purposes" (hereinafter – EU list), in national legislation. Since the EU list is regularly updated, the Regulations include a direct reference to the EU list and a procedure to give the legal effect, thus, ensuring the timely updated on national basis. Namely, the Regulations provide that after the decision of the Council of the European Union on the updating of the EU list and its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, the Ministry of Finance announces the updated list of low-tax or tax-free countries and territories, sending it for publication in the official publication "Latvijas Vēstnesis", as well as publishing On the website of the Ministry of Finance.
The development of the Regulation by including the EU list jurisdictions was necessary in order as of 1 January 2021 to ensure the fulfilment of the agreement reached and the guidance endorsed at the EU Council on 5 December 2019 on the coordination of the national level defensive measures of the EU member states in the field of taxation in relation to the jurisdictions included in the EU list. Thus in order to ensure the fulfilment of the agreement reached and the guidance endorsed at the EU Council, Latvia has to ensure that the national level defensive measures are applied in relation to the jurisdictions included in the EU list.
Now and in the future, the list referred to in the Regulation will only be used to apply the protective measures laid down in national tax legislation, which are also compatible with those laid down at EU level, thus continuing to ensure that abuse of the tax system is prevented and could be used in other matters if necessary. The list above-mentioned is updated according to the initiatives at the EU level.