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Tax Incentives
Port of Ventspils is one of EU’s special economic zones (SEZs) that stimulates all kinds of investments in production. As a SEZ, it is one of the Baltic Sea ports with especially favourable conditions for foreign investors. The accessibility of the infrastructure and qualified labour force of the port and production parks has been appreciated by partners in the fields of engineering, chemical industry, wood processing, electronics, IT and others, who have favoured production in the Ventspils industrial zone.
Tax Incentives in Ventspils Free Port
Ventspils Free Port is a special economic zone (SEZ) with considerable tax incentives that promote export and industrial activities as well as strengthen the global competition of EU companies. In accordance with the law Application of Taxes in Free Ports and Special Economic Zones and EU regulations, licensed companies are entitled to apply considerable direct and indirect tax breaks.
In the special economic zone the Corporate Income Tax and Real Estate Tax are reduced by 80% until the company compensates up to 35% (55% for small companies and 45% for medium-size companies) of the investments. It means that during the compensation time the Corporate Income Tax rate is 4% and the Real Estate Tax rate is 0.3%. If, in turn, dividends are distributed to a company in SEZ, the profit tax is 4% instead of the usual 20%. Reliefs are also available on indirect taxes: Value Added Tax, Excise and Customs Duties.
Criteria and Application Procedure for Acquiring a Special Economic Zone Licensed Company Status
Ventspils Free Port offers your companies to receive a licence to operate as a special economic zone, which entitles the companies to the tax reductions provided in the law of the Republic of Latvia on Application of Taxes in Free Ports and Special Economic Zones.
An application for obtaining the licence for operation under free economic zone status must be submitted to the Free Port of Ventspils Authority. The procedure set for issuing the licence is in force until at least 2035.
Documents Necessary from the Applicant
In order to acquire a Freeport of Ventspils licensed company status, the company must receive at least 50 points in this evaluation.
If you need any help while preparing the documents, please contact us! marketing@portofventspils.lv
Businesses currently in Freeport of Ventspils
Member of the Board and manager of EUROLCDS IlmÄrs Osmanis:
– Thanks to the support of Ventspils municipality and the Freeport Administration, we can successfully operate in the largest clean room in Latvia as well as in a totally new industrial building. A perfectly developed infrastructure is also ready for us to use. We evaluated several sites for placing our liquid crystal display manufacturing plant. The benefits of Ventspils, that were not present in other sites, were the available industrial park with enough energy capacities, which was of utmost importance for us, as well as the promise of Ventspils Freeport to build an industrial building and rent it to as, plus the Ventspils University College in which electronic and IT engineers are studying. We need engineers with fresh knowledge as well as managers.
Forta Prefab board member Ermins Sniedze:
– The decision of the factories creation in Ventspils has largely been taken considering such aspects as the existence of already prepared production space (prepared factory for modular building construction), the existence of the port and its own docks, also the availability of a skilled workforce, as well as the geographical location of Ventspils - the closeness to the potential markets in Scandinavia.