In order to promote economic growth by attracting large investments to Latvia, on the basis of Article 17.2 of the Enterprise Income Tax Law and Paragraphs 21 and 22 of the Transitional Provisions of the Law on Corporate Income Tax, companies were able to receive a an enterprise income tax (EIT) rebate on initial long-term investments made within the framework of the supported investment project - 25% of the total initial long-term investment amount up to EUR 50 million, 15% of the initial long-term investment amount for the part from EUR 50 million up to EUR 100 million.
In order to qualify for the EIT rebate, the company had to fulfill a number of conditions, including that the initial long-term investment must have been made to establish a new place of business, to increase production or service capacity, to start the production of a new product which the taxpayer had not produced before, or to substantially change the production process.
It should be noted that the tax credit applies in the tax period in which the assisted investment project is completed and, if the tax calculated in the tax period is less than the tax credit calculated, the taxpayer may reduce the tax calculated in subsequent tax periods by the unused portion of the tax credit until the tax credit has been used in full, but not more than in the following 16 tax periods in chronological order.
The decision to support the investment project was taken by the Cabinet of Ministers, taking into account an assessment of the project's expected impact on the national economy by a commission established by the Ministry of Economics.