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Central Europe
July 19, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 13
Lithuania passes e-residency legislation to boost investment Wojciech Kosc in Warsaw
The Lithuanian parliament passed amendments to the law on the legal status of aliens on July 16. The amendments will allow foreigners to obtain e-residency in order to enable company registra- tion as well as use banking services and pay taxes using online services only, without setting foot in the Baltic state.
Lithuania hopes that e-residency will attract investors and create a “more favourable business environment” in the country, according to the Lithuanian home affairs ministry. The new law will take effect from January 1, 2021.
Nearby Estonia has operated an e-residency
system since 2014, which currently boasts nearly 54,500 e-residency permits and over 6,000 compa- nies operated remotely from 136 countries around the world. E-residents brought in over €15mn in tax revenue for Estonia, according to information available on the e-residency’s programme website.
In order to receive an e-residency permit in Lithuania, foreigners will need to apply via the Lithuanian government’s migration department in the interior ministry in a fashion similar to obtaining a visa.
Lithuania taxes companies a flat rate of 15% in most cases. The standard VAT rate is 21%.
Poland’s PiS pays for domestic antics with marginalisation in Europe
Wojciech Kosc in Warsaw
Former Polish prime minister Beata Szydlo failed twice in the past week to become the head of the European Parliament’s (EP's) committee on em- ployment and social affairs in what seems to be the result of Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party's anti-EU sentiment in domestic politics.
PiS convincingly won the European vote in Poland in late May with promises of exerting a greater influence on EU policymaking to the national ben- efit. But the party is now facing the reality of EU politicking after years of conflict with the EU over the independence of the judiciary, environmental protection and migration have left it without allies in Brussels.
In addition to Szydlo’s failure to win the votes, the PiS government has come well short of securing any of the top EU jobs so far. Nor is Warsaw likely to receive any major portfolio in the new European Commission, the current speculation goes.
Poland is not giving up, however. PiS had hinted
it would be willing to see a Pole at the helm of crucial portfolios like agriculture, economy, or energy, in return for its support for Ursula von der Leyen, the German candidate for the Commis- sion’s new president. Her candidacy will be de- cided in a plenary vote in the EP on July 16.
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