The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

Employers Affected by the Crisis Caused by COVID-19 which are Eligible for the Allowance for Idle Time and Division of the Payment for Late Tax Payments in Instalments or Deferral Thereof for up to Three Years, originally adopted on 26 March, does not provide support for all those doing business in the virus-affected industries. The state of emergency in Latvia was announced on 12 March, being first extended until 12 May and then 9 June. The amendments to the original Regulation were introduced gradually in accordance with the extension of the state of emergency. At the time of writing this article, Regulation No 165 applies to those employers, “ whose income from economic activity has, due to the spread of COVID-19, decreased by at least 30 per cent in March, April, May or June 2020, in comparison with the average income of the twelve months of 2019 or the average income of those months within the period of 1 January 2019 to 1 March 2020, in which the enterprise was actually operating; whose income from economic activity has decreased by at least 20 per cent in March, April, May or June, 2020 in comparison with the average income of the twelve months of 2019 or the average income of those months within the period of 1 January 2019 to 1 March 2020 in which the enterprise was actually operating, and they meet at least one of the following criteria: • In 2019, the volume of exports of goods and services and the volume of deliveries of goods and services within the territory of the European Union of the employer affected by the crisis amounts to 10% of the total turnover or is not less than EUR 500 000 • The average monthly gross work remuneration disbursed by the employer affected by the crisis in 2019 is not less than EUR 800 • As on 31 December 2019, long-term investments in fixed assets are at least EUR 500 000. The downtime benefit shall be determined for the employee: • in the amount of 75 % of the average monthly gross work remuneration for the period of last six months before the declaration of the emergency situation, or in accordance with the actual data declared in respect of the employee within the previous six months, but not exceeding EUR 700 per calendar month; • for an employee of a micro-enterprise - in the amount of 50 % of the average monthly gross work remuneration in the micro-enterprise for the third and fourth quarter of 2019 (the information indicated in the quarterly return of micro-enterprise tax in