Legal system of Latvia is based upon civil law. Today’s legal system has been formed for 150 years under the influence of various legal cultures. The greatest contribution was made by the German, pre-revolutionary Russian and Soviet legal systems.
After Soviet government came into power in 1940, all local legislation was abolished. After Latvia gained independency it started radical reforms of the legal system. In 1992 the main acts were recovered – Constitution 1922 and Civil Act 1937.
Legal system of Latvia is still based upon Soviet legislation in many aspects.
Latvian legislation allows establishing of the following business entities:
The most popular form in Latvia is SIA, since it is the most convenient form for any type of business.
According to Latvian legislation, the following restrictions apply to company names:
To incorporate a SIA company in Latvia the following steps are required:
To register SIA in Latvia it is required to submit an application and a set of documents to the Register of Enterprises. Application can be submitted by the founder or the other person with a proxy.
The number of documents should be mentioned in the application. If documents have more than one page they should be bound.
Before submitting the application a government fee for registration and publication in the official gazette should be paid.
List of required documents:
All documents should be in the Latvian language. Affidavit of compliance of Latvian documents with English documents is available.
After registration Register issues the following documents:
Articles of Association should contain the following information:
Articles of associations should be signed by all the founders. It is not required to certify founders’ signatures.
If the company is founded by one founder, resolution on establishment of the company should be signed instead of articles of association. Resolution contains the above information. It is not required to certify founder’s signature.
SIA Memorandum of Association
Memorandum of Association should contain the following information:
Bank receipt confirming the payment of share capital
Minimum amount of share capital of SIA in Latvia is 2000 LAT (about 2850 EUR). Before submitting the application at least 50% of the capital should be paid in, the rest should be paid in within a year since the date of registration. Share capital can be paid in cash or in kind.
After registration with Register of Enterprises it is required to register at State Revenue Service.
Registration at tax authority is not a part of company incorporation procedure and is completed separately.
Depending on type of entity and type of activity there are two kinds of registration for VAT:
To register for VAT you should file an application, in case of successful registration you will be sent a Resolution on registration.
Electronic declaration system is a way to file information with State Revenue Service, returns and tax returns via Internet. Connecting with the system is obligatory.
After company registration is complete, one should connect with electronic declaration system, since tax returns are not accepted in paper. To connect with the system you should conclude the contract with the State Revenue Service. After the signing of the contract company is registered as a user within 5 days.
It takes 10-30 business days to register a SIA in Latvia. This term covers the whole procedure including preparation of basic documents, opening bank account, registration at Commercial Registry and delivery of documents.
Term of registration procedure at the Commercial registry is as follows:
Head public notary of the Register of Enterprises has a right to issue an order about processing the application within the term set by law under condition of returning government fee, if the Register is not able to process the application within one business day.
If it is required to register for VAT processing time will take 15 business days.
All the records of Commercial Registry are publicly accessibly through publication in the official gazette Latvijas Vēstnesis.
Publicly accessible information includes:
This information is published within 3 days since the entry of information into Commercial Registry at founders’ cost; the fee is 24 LVL (about 34 EUR).
Information on registered company can be obtained at Register of Enterprises and Databases providing access to state registers.
Obtaining information from Register of Enterprises
To obtain information from Register of Enterprises you should pay a state duty in any bank first.
Request for information is submitted to the Register along with the payment receipt:
Register of Enterprises provides standard information on companies only:
According to the amendments to the Commercial law 2011 about beneficiaries, shareholders of the Latvian companies are obliged to report the beneficiaries’ information to the Register.
This information is not public, since only law-enforcement authorities and controlling authorities have access to it.
There are also some exceptions to the above requirement, e.g. in case the shareholder cannot get the information on beneficiary due to the objective reasons.
Obtaining information from Databases with the access to state registers
It is possible to request the following information on companies in the public databases online:
Information from Register of annual returns:
All information is available on the Internet, each service fee does not exceed 5 EUR.
According to Latvian legislation SIA is required to have a local registered office. This means that each company should have a legal address in Latvia.
There is no statutory requirement to have a seal.
The redomiciliation of companies either to or from Latvia is not permitted.
The minimum number of directors in SIA is one. Corporate directors are not permissible. It is not required to appoint local residents as directors.
SIA is not required to appoint a secretary.
The minimum number of shareholders in Latvian companies is one. Corporate shareholders are permissible. Shareholders can be residents or non-residents.
Shareholders’ information is disclosed to public and local agent.
There are no requirements regarding frequency of general meetings.
In 2017 the Law on Introduction of Beneficiary Register was adopted.
All legal entities registered in Latvia must submit beneficiary data. The Register contains the following information:
Type of control over a legal entity (including full name, identification number for the participant or individual shareholder through whom the control is exercised, or the name, registration number and legal address of the participant or shareholder legal entity).
From the beginning of 2020 the Registry of Companies became public: the information is provided free of charge and without the need for additional authorization on the site. Some information can only be obtained for an additional fee and with a motivated request.
Minimum capital requirement for SIA is 2000 LVL (2850 EUR).
SIA capital may amount from 1 LVL to 1999 LVL in case the following conditions are met:
Before submitting the application at least 50% of the capital should be paid in, the rest should be paid in within a year since the date of registration.
Share capital can be paid in cash or in kind. Founders have a right to make self-assessment of the asset contribution if the value of such a contribution does not exceed 4000 LVL (5700 EUR) and makes less than a half of the authorized capital.
In SIA with reduced capital (from 1 LVL to 1999 LVL) the whole capital should be pain in before registration.
Bearer shares are not allowed.
Price4 800 EUR
including incorporation tax, state registry fee, including Compliance fee
Price3 950 EUR
including registered address and registered agent, NOT including Compliance fee
Price150 EUR
Price500 EUR
Paid-up “nominee shareholder” set includes the following documents
Compliance fee is payable in the cases of: renewal of a company, liquidation of a company, transfer out of a company, issue of a power of attorney to a new attorney, change of director / shareholder / BO (except the change to a nominee director / shareholder)
Price250 USD
simple company structure with only 1 physical person
Price50 USD
additional compliance fee for legal entity in structure under GSL administration (per 1 entity)
Price100 USD
additional compliance fee for legal entity in structure NOT under GSL administration (per 1 entity)
Price350 USD