On February 28th, FICIL met with the newly appointed Director General of the State Revenue Service (SRS), Baiba Šmite Roķe. FICIL was represented by Zlata Elksniņa-Zaščirinska, Chairperson of the Board; Evita Goša, leader of the Shadow Economy Combating work group; Ilze Berga, leader of the Tax Administration sub-group; and Vita Sakne, leader of the Tax Policy sub-group. The meeting aimed to discuss various topics such as shadow economy combatting, tax administration, taxpayer rating system and strategy of the SRS under its new leadership, with FICIL bringing up recommendations from its position paper.

Having previously collaborated on various matters, FICIL, guided by the Shadow Economy Combating work group, actively participated in the development of the now approved Shadow Economy Reduction Plan until 2027. During the meeting, the SRS expressed gratitude to FICIL for their valuable input into the plan.

The focal point of the discussion was reducing shadow economy. FICIL put forth suggestions for refining the Taxpayer Rating System, advocating for increased transparency where businesses could not only view ratings but also understand the reasoning behind them. Emphasising the diverse needs of taxpayers, FICIL proposed a more tailored approach to the taxpayer rating system. Both parties discussed strategies to incentivise businesses to operate legitimately and reduce the shadow economy in Latvia. Clear communication together with benefits were highlighted as a key factor for motivating the businesses leave shadow economy. FICIL and the SRS agreed on the necessity of balancing motivational incentives with penalties for non-taxpayers to help reduce shadow economy.

FICIL recommended SRS to take measures to ensure further digitalisation effort of the entity and to become more transparent, for example, by publishing more anonymised cases and guidelines so that taxpayers can learn and self-regulate.

The meeting concluded with a mutual agreement to strengthen cooperation.