Estonia’s Minister of Defence, Hanno Pevkur, said that the Estonian Defence Forces believed that the country’s defence spending could rise to 4.5% of GDP, ERR reports. However, Pevkur emphasised the need for a “reasonable limit” due to investments in health care, social welfare, and education. He acknowledged the desire for increased spending on defence given…
The Latvian government does not plan to make major changes to taxation in 2024, Finance Minister Arvils Aseradens assured, LSM reports. He said that now was not a good time to make changes in VAT, labour taxes, personal income tax, or corporate income tax. However, the Ministry of Finance will propose raising the excise duties…
Estonia’s central bank, the Bank of Estonia, opposes the government’s plan to replace Estonia’s self-imposed budgetary discipline rules with the EU’s less stringent budget rules, ERR reports. Ülo Kaasik, vice-president of the Bank of Estonia, insisted that changing the rules simply because of an inability to meet them was never a good idea. He warned…
The Estonian government has agreed on the state budget for 2024, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas announced, ERR reports. Under the agreement, the government will introduce no new taxes in addition to ones implemented earlier. The government will not impose a new tax on commercial banks, which will instead pay more taxable dividends. Also, the government…
Lithuania risks losing millions of euros in EU funds if key reforms, including a tax reform, are not implemented, European Commission (EC) Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis warned, LRT reports. Dombrovskis will discuss the progress of the tax reform package with Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte and Finance Minister Gintare Skaiste in Vilnius on 7-8 September 2023. Dombrovskis…
A public petition against the Estonian government’s planned car tax collected 65,565 signatures by its close on 31 August 2023, ERR reports. The Estonian Car Owners Association (EAOL) initiated the petition in the middle of July 2023. The number of signatures is the highest ever for public petitions on the Citizen Initiative Portal (Rahvaalgatus). The…
Commercial banks and other credit institutions in Lithuania have paid EUR 56mn in temporary solidarity tax for the second quarter of 2023, according to the Finance Ministry’s preliminary data, BNS reports. Altogether 18 credit institutions made the first quarterly advance payment by the deadline of 31 August 2023. Swedbank paid EUR 25mn, followed by SEB…
Lithuanian commercial banks and other credit institutions are due to pay a total of over EUR 50mn in temporary solidarity tax by 31 August 2023, BNS reports. Banks will have to pay the full tax for 2023 by 15 June 2024. The tax is calculated based on net interest income that exceeds the average income…
Estonia’s GDP totalled EUR 9.42bn at current prices in the the second quarter of 2023, which was up 5.1% from the same period of 2022, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. Real GDP fell by 2.9% over a year, however. Compared to the first quarter of 2023, seasonally adjusted real GDP decreased by…