The €150 rule — how a small tax debt can cost you your residence permit in Latvia

What the law actually says

Latvia's Immigration Law §23, paragraphs 2–4 and 7, gives the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP) explicit authority to refuse to issue or cancel your residence permit if you have a registered tax debt above €150, or if "taxes have not been paid for you in the last year."

€150 is not a lot of money. One missed quarterly VSAOI payment for a typical Wolt courier is around €727 — almost 5× the threshold. That's enough, on its own, to flag your file at PMLP.

"PMLP doesn't look for evidence that you paid. They look for evidence that something was filed — and they check the balance."

How a tax debt becomes "registered"

VID flags a debt as registered after about 60 days of non-payment. Late-payment interest accrues at 0.05% per day (~18% annually). The clock starts on the due date — not the date you noticed.

DAC7 adds a second risk: Wolt, Bolt, and Bolt Food now report your annual earnings to VID. If the platform says you earned €18,000 last year and your filings say €0, that mismatch is enough to trigger an inquiry — even before you're late.

What to do about it

The most common situation we see: a courier or driver who knows they're behind, doesn't know how much, and has a residence-permit renewal coming up. The sequence we recommend:

1. Check your VID account. Log into EDS or ask us to do it for you. We'll tell you the registered balance.
2. File anything overdue. Late-filing penalty is small; late-payment interest is larger. File first, pay second.
3. Set up a payment plan if needed. VID will accept a structured plan in most cases. The key is having one in writing.
4. Ask for a "no debt" certificate. When the balance hits zero, request a confirmation letter. Take it to PMLP at renewal.

# Example — request a "no-debt" certificate via EDS
POST /eds/api/v1/certificates
{
  "personal_code": "XXXXXX-XXXXX",
  "type":          "no_debt",
  "purpose":       "PMLP residence permit renewal"
}

How we help

RozoFinance runs a quarterly permit-safety check on every customer: we read your VID balance, confirm everything is filed, and send you a one-page report you can show to PMLP. It's included in the €7/month Basics plan, and included in every plan above it.

If you're already behind, the first conversation is free. Message us on WhatsApp and we'll tell you what we see — even if you don't end up signing up.