Business in Latvia: set-up and ongoing legal support

Incorporation and registration

Choosing the form (most often a limited liability company, SIA), drafting the articles of association and shareholder agreement, registration in the Commercial Register, filing beneficial-owner information, registration with the State Revenue Service and for VAT, support with opening a bank account (including the bank's know-your-customer questions), and licences where the activity requires them. A branch or representative office of a foreign company, and the purchase of an existing Latvian company, including the legal check before you buy.

Typical situations: you want a Latvian company to trade in the EU · a Latvian customer or public tender requires a local entity · you are buying a Latvian company and want its contracts, debts and litigation checked · the bank has asked for documents you do not know how to prepare.

Registered address and accounting — through cooperation partners

A company needs a registered address in Latvia and monthly accounting from the first month. These are not legal services, and we do not pretend they are: we provide them through cooperation partners we work with regularly — a registered address in Riga with handling of official mail, bookkeeping, payroll, VAT and annual reports. You still deal with one office: we coordinate, you receive one set of instructions, and legal questions that come up in the accounting (a contract, a tax audit, a dismissal) come straight to us.

Contracts and employment

Drafting and reviewing commercial contracts with Latvian counterparties — supply, distribution, services, lease of premises, loan and security documents — in English and Latvian, under Latvian law. Employment contracts, remote work, posting of employees to Latvia, dismissals and settlements, non-compete and confidentiality clauses, work permits for non-EU staff together with the residence permit procedure. General terms and conditions, data protection documentation.

Typical situations: a Latvian supplier sends its standard contract in Latvian · you are hiring your first employee in Latvia · a dismissal must be handled so that it holds up in court · a distributor or agent is to be terminated.

Corporate governance and transactions

Shareholders' meetings and resolutions, changes of board members and share capital, share transfers, shareholder agreements, board members' duties and liability, reorganisations, liquidation of a company that is no longer needed. Sale and purchase of a company or a business, including the legal check and the transaction documents.

Tax and regulatory matters

Tax questions that arise in running the company — VAT on cross-border supplies, permanent establishment, withholding tax, the taxation of dividends and director's fees — and correspondence with the State Revenue Service before a disagreement becomes a dispute. Anti-money-laundering obligations for companies that are themselves subject to supervision, sanctions screening, licences and permits, sector-specific regulation.

When a dispute arises

Unpaid invoices and contract disputes, a tax audit or a refused VAT refund, a frozen bank account, a criminal investigation touching the company or its officers, a seizure or confiscation of assets — the same office continues the work, with the advantage of already knowing the business. See civil and commercial disputes, disputes with authorities and the tax office and criminal defence and confiscation.

How we work with businesses

1. First conversationYou describe what the company will do in Latvia and who its owners are. We tell you which form, registrations and licences it needs, what the bank will ask for, and what it will cost — including the partners' fees for address and accounting.
2. Set-upWe prepare and file the documents, coordinate the notary or electronic signatures, the Commercial Register, the State Revenue Service and the bank, and arrange the registered address and accounting with our partners. Most companies are registered within days of the documents being signed.
3. Ongoing counselContracts, employment, corporate housekeeping and questions from authorities as they come — by the hour or under a monthly arrangement agreed in writing, with one contact person and one language.
4. If a dispute arisesThe same office represents the company in negotiations, before the authorities and in court. Nothing has to be explained from the beginning to a new adviser.

What to prepare

• passport copies of the shareholders and board members, and the corporate documents of a parent company (extract from its register, articles, a document showing its beneficial owners);
• a short description of the planned activity, customers and suppliers, and the expected turnover;
• information on where the share capital and the first funds will come from — the bank will ask;
• if you are buying an existing company — whatever the seller has given you so far.

Documents in English do not need translation for the first conversation; for filings, a certified Latvian translation of foreign corporate documents is usually required, and documents from non-EU countries need an apostille.

Frequently asked questions