RigavsWarsaw.

Riga

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (Uzņēmumu ienākuma nodokļa likums; VID — board-member remuneration, social insurance and wage tax) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jan 1, 2026

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Method

Best eligible scheme = lv-sia-distributed-profit (SIA, whole profit distributed) at €60,000 revenue with 10% deductible expenses (net profit €54,000). Monthly turnover is €5,000, above the €3,900 test, so the sole director must be paid at least the minimum wage or is deemed to earn it: salary 12 × €780 = €9,360 (a deductible company cost and the owner's own income), employer social insurance 23.59% × 780 × 12 = €2,208.00 (deductible), employee social insurance 10.50% × 780 × 12 = €982.80, wage tax 12 × 25.5% × (780 − 81.90 − 550 non-taxable minimum) = 12 × 37.77 = €453.24. Distributable profit = 54,000 − 9,360 − 2,208.00 = €42,432.00, corporate tax 20% of the gross distribution = €8,486.40; the dividend itself carries no personal tax. Levies €12,130.44 → 20.2% of revenue. The microenterprise tax is not available at this size (turnover limit = the €50,000 VAT threshold), so the company route is the lowest-burden option open to a resident freelancer.

Notes

The ordinary self-employed route (lv-self-employed-general) at the same profile costs €17,579.29, i.e. 29.3%: social insurance €7,372.20 (31.07% on the €780-a-month minimum base plus 10% of the profit above it) and income tax 25.5% × (54,000 − 7,372.20 − 6,600) = €10,207.09, with the contributions deductible. The microenterprise tax would be 25.0% of turnover (€15,000) but is closed to a freelancer above €50,000 of turnover or with VAT-registered business customers in other EU states. A non-EU remote worker on the remote-work long-stay visa pays a flat 15% income tax for the first 365 days of Latvian residency, but VID treats such a person as an employee of a foreign employer owing 34.09% social insurance, so the burden is €23,747.31 (39.6%) unless the contributions are paid in another state, in which case it is €8,100 (13.5%) (lv-remote-work-visa-15pct). The company figure excludes accounting and filing costs and buys social-insurance rights only on the minimum-wage base; below the €3,900-a-month turnover line there is no director's salary and the burden is a flat 20.0% (with no insurance cover at all), while just above it the same company pays about 22.8% (a profile without expenses), so the figure moves with the turnover test.

Warsaw

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (biznes.gov.pl) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jan 1, 2026

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Method

Best eligible scheme pl-ryczalt-it-12 at €60,000 revenue = 257,400 PLN (ECB 4.29): ZUS social 21,459.48 + health 9,966.96 + Labor Fund 1,661.64 + 12% lump-sum tax 27,714.84 = 60,802.92 PLN → 23.6%. Expenses don't reduce ryczałt.

Riga

Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP) — Receiving a long-term visa for remote work ↗

Official source

Data as of

Sep 15, 2026

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Notes

Latvia issues a long-stay (D) visa for remote work to third-country nationals, except Russian citizens, who work for an employer registered in an OECD member state or are self-employed and registered in one. The pay or income test is 2.5 times the previous year's average gross monthly wage, 4,538 EUR in 2026; the visa lasts up to a year, can be repeated once for another year, and gives no right to work in Latvia or a route to permanent residence (see lv-remote-work-visa). The earlier permit for self-employed persons ended on 15 September 2026.

Warsaw

Wielkopolska Voivodeship Office — business-activity residence permit ↗

Official source

Data as of

Jul 3, 2026

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Notes

No digital nomad visa (verified absent on gov.pl); Poland Business Harbour suspended since Jan 2024. Realistic long-stay route: temporary residence via business activity (renewable, up to 3 years) — but sole-proprietorship registration is limited to specific statuses, so most non-EU/non-US freelancers route through a company.

Riga

Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia — Household Budget Survey 2025: mean monthly consumption expenditure of one-person households by ECOICOP v2 division (table MBI031) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Dec 31, 2025

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Method

One-person households spent €798.57 a month in the Central Statistical Bureau's 2025 Household Budget Survey (CSP table MBI031, published 17 August 2026; consumption in cash and in kind, imputed rent not included). The survey is current-year, so no inflation uplift applies. Actual rentals are removed: Eurostat's HBS 2020 structure for Latvian one-adult households puts actual rentals at 23 per mille of consumption that includes 196 per mille of imputed rent, i.e. 23 / 804 = 2.86% of consumption without imputed rent, = €22.84 a month. €798.57 − €22.84 = €775.73, × 1.1253 USD/EUR (ECB, 2026-10-16) = $873. The 13 ECOICOP v2 divisions are summed in cost-breakdown.

Notes

The 2025 survey (2,063 responding households, 20% response rate) is Latvia's first to use ECOICOP version 2 and, by the CSP's own warning, is not fully comparable with 2019 and earlier. One-person households include many pensioners, so the basket is an average for people living alone, not a working remote worker's. The rent split is the weakest input, because the CSP does not publish rentals by household type; using the all-household 2025 share of rentals instead (€164.65 of €7,428.08 a year, 2.2%) would remove €17.70 rather than €22.84, a $6 difference. Cross-check: the CSP's 2019 one-person figure (€513.62 a month) lifted by Latvia's HICP from the 2019 to the 2025 annual average (108.53 → 150.85, ×1.390) gives €714, 11% below the 2025 survey figure.

Warsaw

GUS — Household Budget Survey 2024 (one-person households), CPI-uplifted ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

May 31, 2026

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Method

GUS one-person household consumer spending 2,888.89 PLN/mo (2024) minus actual-rentals line 235.10 → 2,653.79 PLN; uplifted by CPI (+3.6% 2025 avg, +3.1% y/y May 2026) → ≈2,835 PLN; converted at 3.7635 PLN/USD (ECB 2026-07-02). Cross-checked against Eurostat price-level indices (PL ≈ 72% of EU27).

Riga

Ministry of the Interior Information Centre (IeM IC) — Kriminālā statistika par 2025. gadu, offences registered in Riga by Criminal Law article ↗

Official source

Data as of

Dec 31, 2025

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Method

Offences registered in Riga in 2025 under Criminal Law section 116 (murder) 15, section 117 (murder under aggravating circumstances) 3 and section 118 (murder under especially aggravating circumstances) 3 = 21, from the annual workbook NN_2025.xlsx (sheet XII nodaļa, distribution by State city; read 2026-10-19), divided by Riga’s 2025 annual average population of 591,982 (CSP IRS031, POP) and multiplied by 100,000 = 3.55.

Notes

Registered offences by the place where they were committed, not victims by residence, and the register may include attempts along with completed offences, so the figure can overstate the completed-homicide rate and cannot be set directly against UNODC or Eurostat series. The same workbook gives 53 such offences for all of Latvia (34 + 13 + 6), 2.9 per 100,000 on the national average population, so Riga reads about a quarter above the country.

Warsaw

Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (ICCS 0101) ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2024

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Notes

Completed homicides. UNODC latest (2023): 0.80 per 100k. Polish police's ~503 'zabójstwa' (2024) includes attempts.

Riga

SettleMetric computation over Riga LU climate-normals (WMO 26422) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Dec 31, 2020

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Method

Count of months with mean daily max 15–28°C and precipitation < 150mm, from the 1991–2020 normals: May (17.8°C), Jun (21.3), Jul (23.8), Aug (22.7), Sep (17.3) qualify = 5. April misses at 11.9°C and October at 10.5°C; no month exceeds 28°C or 150 mm.

Warsaw

SettleMetric computation over climate-normals ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Dec 31, 2020

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Method

Months with mean daily max 15–28°C and precipitation < 150mm: May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep = 5 (April misses at 14.5°C).

Riga

European Environment Agency — Air Quality Statistics (E1a validated), station LV0026A "Riga Kronvalda boulevard" ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2025

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Method

Validated (E1a, verification flag 1) 2025 annual mean at station LV0026A, Riga Kronvalda boulevard, an urban background site at 56.9548°N 24.1048°E (3 m): 8.812 µg/m³ on 99.28% data coverage, hourly data, queried from the EEA statistics service on 2026-10-19 (calculated 2026-10-15). It is the only Riga station with PM2.5 in the EEA’s annual statistics. Earlier years at the same station: 8.920 µg/m³ in 2024 (99.35%), 8.468 in 2023 (96.95%) and 9.245 in 2022 (97.76%). The WHO Ambient Air Quality Database v8.0 (2026) carries the same series for Riga/LVA — 9.24, 8.47 and 8.92 for 2022–2024 — and has no 2025 row yet.

Notes

ONE STATION: an urban-background site near the centre, so it describes the city’s general level, not traffic corridors. Riga’s only other station in the EEA statistics, LV0027A Riga-Valdemara street (traffic, urban), reports PM10, NO2 and benzene but no PM2.5 in 2025; the WHO row counts both stations (n=2) because it pools three pollutants, but its PM2.5 value is the Kronvalda station alone. 8.8 µg/m³ is above the WHO 2021 guideline of 5 µg/m³ and below the EU limit of 10 µg/m³ that applies from 2030. Kronvalda’s 2025 PM10 annual mean was 16.2 µg/m³.

Warsaw

WHO Ambient Air Quality Database 2026 (v8.0), row "Warszawa/POL" 2024 — original data European Environment Agency, Air Quality Statistics ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2024

Verified

Aug 28, 2026

Method

Row "Warszawa/POL", year 2024, pm25_concentration 14.703 µg/m³ at 99% temporal coverage, from seven stations — six urban background and one urban traffic. The row aggregates a station centroid of 52.2258°N 21.0020°E, 2.5km from the city centre, over a footprint of 1,777,972 people against the 1,866,729 municipal population. Restated from the EEA city viewer's 2022–2023 two-year average so that all four Polish cities rest on the same single reference year, 2024, as the rest of this dataset.

Notes

Nearly three times the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³); inside the current EU limit (25) but above the 2030 EU limit (10). Winter heating is the main source and summers are much cleaner. The station mix is the most background-weighted of the Polish cities here, and the series is drifting down — 18.44 in 2021, 15.58 in 2023, 14.70 in 2024.

Warsaw

LuxMed / Medicover / Signal Iduna comprehensive (with-inpatient) plans — market midpoint; insurers quote on request ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jul 3, 2026

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Method

Comprehensive private plans that include inpatient/hospital cover — top-tier LuxMed/Medicover subscriptions (own or partner hospitals) and standalone health insurance (Signal Iduna, Allianz Zdrowie, PZU) — run ≈400–700 PLN/month. Healthy-35-year-old midpoint ≈ 500 PLN/mo ≈ 6,000 PLN/yr ≈ $1,595 at 3.7635 PLN/USD (range ≈ $1,275–$2,230). Premiums are quoted on request, so this is a curated market midpoint, not a public engine quote.

Notes

Residents are covered by mandatory public insurance (NFZ); private cover is optional. Most people buy only a cheaper OUTPATIENT subscription (LuxMed/Medicover ≈150–250 PLN/mo ≈ $600/yr) and use the public system for hospital care. This figure is the with-inpatient comprehensive tier, chosen to be comparable with other countries' comprehensive plans (the earlier $603 was an outpatient-only subscription mislabelled as comprehensive).

Riga

Kriptoaktīvu pakalpojumu likums (Crypto-Asset Services Law), adopted 13 June 2024, in force 30 June 2024 ↗

Official source

Data as of

Jun 30, 2024

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Notes

Legal and licensed under the EU's MiCA regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114). The Crypto-Asset Services Law supplements MiCA and, in article 4(1), names Latvijas Banka as Latvia's competent authority under article 93(1) of MiCA for issuers, offerors and crypto-asset service providers (the financial supervisor's functions passed to Latvijas Banka on 1 January 2023). Providers already operating before 30 December 2024 under the State Revenue Service's anti-money-laundering supervision could continue without MiCA authorisation until 30 June 2025, or until Latvijas Banka decided if they had applied by then (transitional provision 2). The law regulates providers and issuers; it contains no restriction on individuals holding or trading crypto-assets. For tax, the State Revenue Service treats a private person's gain on selling crypto-assets as capital gain, taxed at 25.5% from 2025.

Warsaw

Polish tax authority — disposal of virtual currencies (PIT-38, 19%) ↗

Official source

Data as of

Jul 1, 2026

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Notes

Holding/trading legal for individuals; 19% flat tax on disposal gains (crypto-to-crypto swaps untaxed). EU MiCA applies; Poland's domestic implementing act was vetoed (latest 2026-06-11), so local CASP licensing is stalled — EU-passported providers serve the market.

Riga

Composite — euro-area free movement of capital + Law "On Taxes and Fees" (Par nodokļiem un nodevām), article 30 (restrictions on the use of cash) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Oct 15, 2026

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Method

Composite, each input read at its source on 2026-10-19. Latvia is a euro-area member of the EU, so capital moves freely under EU law and no currency or capital controls apply. The restrictions on personal money flows found: (1) cash payments, Law "On Taxes and Fees" article 30: a natural person who carries on no economic activity may not make a cash transaction above EUR 7,200, in one operation or several (art. 30(8); in force since 1 January 2017 under the amending law of 23 November 2016, transitional provision 181); taxpayers other than private individuals face the same EUR 7,200 ceiling and must declare monthly their cash transactions above EUR 1,500 (art. 30(1)); and no taxpayer, a private individual included, may sell or buy immovable property in cash, at any amount (art. 30(1^6)). Article 30 is read in the version in force since 15 October 2026; the last amending law (17 September 2026) restated only part 3, which keeps credit institutions, payment service providers and licensed consumer lenders outside the rules. (2) Reporting: under article 22^3 banks and payment service providers report to the State Revenue Service (VID) each year on resident individuals whose accounts turned over EUR 15,000 or more, or who paid in EUR 7,000 or more in cash. (3) Cash of EUR 10,000 or more crossing the EU's external border must be declared under Regulation (EU) 2018/1672 (VID cash page). (4) Latvijas Banka states that EU residents, and people without a residence permit who cannot be expelled from Latvia, have a right to a basic payment account, and a bank may not refuse it on grounds of citizenship or residence. The EU-wide EUR 10,000 cash cap in article 80 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 applies from 10 July 2027 and, under article 80(3), leaves Latvia's lower existing limit in force. These are anti-money-laundering rules on cash and on reporting, not limits on moving one's own money by bank transfer. Classified 'low'.

Warsaw

biznes.gov.pl — cash payment limits (art. 19 Prawo przedsiębiorców) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

May 3, 2026

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Method

Composite: no currency/capital controls for EU/OECD flows (Prawo dewizowe, Dz.U. 2024 poz. 1131); PLN fully convertible; B2B cash cap 15,000 PLN per transaction, no consumer cash limit; no FBAR-style foreign-account disclosure (NBP statistical reporting only above 7M PLN of foreign assets); standard EU CRS via banks.

Riga

Latvijas Pasts / Omniva / DPD Latvia / Venipak official network and delivery-time pages (composite) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Oct 19, 2026

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Method

Classified from the carriers' own pages, read on 2026-10-19. Latvijas Pasts, the national postal operator: parcel-locker shipments delivered 'as soon as the next day', courier shipments across Latvia on the next business day, 155 post offices and 421 parcel lockers at the end of 2024 (annual report 2024). Omniva: 416 parcel machines in Latvia in its public locations file (modified 2026-10-16); next-day delivery for parcels handed in before a city cut-off (17:00 in Riga, Mārupe and Jaunmārupe, 12:00 in about 30 towns, 10:00 elsewhere), with 1-2 working days as the general delivery time to a machine. DPD Latvia: a published delivery-time table showing delivery on day 1 'in whole Latvia' for pick-up on day 0 in all three zones, more than 345 parcel lockers, real-time tracking. Venipak: 271 lockers and 130 pick-up points in its public list and about 98% of parcels delivered the next working day (its own figure). SmartPosti: lockers usually served within one working day (not guaranteed), all indoors. Four locker networks add up to roughly 1,400 machines (counts of different dates, not de-duplicated), tracking is standard, and nationwide next-day delivery is published by the national operator and by DPD, Venipak and Omniva → 'excellent'.

Notes

Promises differ by carrier: Omniva states 1-2 working days from handover to a parcel machine and SmartPosti says one working day is usual but not guaranteed, so next-day is the norm rather than a guarantee from every carrier. Unisend Latvija, whose lockers Latvijas Pasts shares, is not counted.

Warsaw

InPost official news / carrier service pages (composite) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Dec 31, 2025

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Method

InPost >28,000 parcel lockers (end-2025) with 98% next-day delivery and 763M parcels/yr; ORLEN Paczka ~14k pickup points; Poczta Polska 7.6k offices + 14.3k parcel points; DPD/DHL/GLS/UPS/FedEx nationwide. Next-day is the domestic norm.

Riga

State Revenue Service (VID) — Postal consignments: changes from 1 July and 1 November 2026 (temporary EUR 3 customs duty; Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382) ↗

Official source

Data as of

Jul 1, 2026

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Notes

Parcels from the EU single market arrive without customs. Every consignment from outside the EU must be declared. The duty exemption for consignments up to EUR 150 ended on 30 June 2026; since 1 July 2026 a temporary customs duty of EUR 3 per item applies until 1 July 2028 (European Commission page of 8 June 2026), plus Latvian VAT at 21%, collected at checkout when the shop uses the IOSS scheme. VID states that from 1 November 2026 a Union handling fee of EUR 2 per item is added; the Commission's page, last updated 20 July 2026, still describes that fee as proposed, with amount and date to be set. Gifts from a private person abroad up to EUR 45 are exempt from duty, VAT and the fee but still need a declaration. Clearance is done by the carrier when the shop supplies the data, by the recipient in VID's Electronic Declaration System, or through Latvijas Pasts: its self-service site atmuito.pasts.lv charges EUR 1.28 for a consignment up to EUR 150 without excise goods and its customs broker EUR 5.99 (EUR 30.25 above EUR 1,000 or for excise or restricted goods); a parcel over 500 g kept at a Pasts customer location more than 10 days costs EUR 1 a day. Latvijas Pasts has stopped clearing goods from Russia and Belarus under EU sanctions. Carriers: DPD, Omniva, SmartPosti, Venipak and Latvijas Pasts deliver across the Baltic states.

Warsaw

European Commission — removal of the €150 customs duty exemption (Reg. EU 2026/382) ↗

Official source

Data as of

Jul 1, 2026

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Notes

Intra-EU shipping is frictionless (single market, all major carriers). Non-EU imports: the €150 duty-free threshold was removed on 2026-07-01 — a temporary flat €3/item duty applies to ≤€150 IOSS consignments (until the 2028 Customs Data Hub); VAT collected at checkout via IOSS. Predictable but no longer duty-free.

Riga

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Latvia ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2023

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Method

Median of the 343 daily country-median download values for LV in 2023 (18,575 download tests; daily medians ranged 10.1-63.2 Mbps). 2023 is the year used across the dataset.

Notes

M-Lab NDT is a single-stream test and reads well below advertised fibre speeds; it is comparable only within this criterion.

Warsaw

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Poland ↗

Open data

Data as of

Dec 31, 2023

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Method

Median of 343 daily country medians, 563,348 tests (2023 — latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API; 2025/2026 files not yet published).

Notes

M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion.

Riga

EF English Proficiency Index 2025 — Latvia (rank 16/123, score 598, High band) ↗

Research

Data as of

Nov 1, 2025

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Notes

Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Latvia ranks 16th of 123 with 598 points, at the top of EF's High band and two points short of Very High (600); the global average is 488 and Riga scores 611. By skill: reading 605, listening 586, writing 551, speaking 542. Banded 'high' rather than 'very-high' because Latvian is the sole official language (State Language Law, art. 3(1)) and state and municipal bodies accept documents only in Latvian, a foreign-language document needing a translation (art. 10(2)-(3), likumi.lv/ta/id/14740), so English will not carry a resident through every government office. Eurostat's Adult Education Survey 2022 (self-reported, not English-specific) shows 95.0% of 25-64-year-olds in Latvia know at least one foreign language, and Eurostat attributes the high share among older people to Russian and among younger people to English.

Warsaw

EF EPI 2025 (rank 15/123, score 600 — Very High band) ↗

Research

Data as of

Nov 1, 2025

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Notes

Own band informed by EF EPI (attribution: EF Education First); English is broadly workable in cities and the service sector, less so in offices/government.

Riga

CIS membership directory, AEFE school directory and Internet Archive captures of IB school profiles ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Oct 19, 2026

Verified

Oct 19, 2026

Method

Count for the Riga metro area = 4 schools in the city + 2 in Piņķi (Babīte, about 12 km west of the centre, in Mārupe municipality). Read directly at an accreditor on 2026-10-19: the Council of International Schools member directory (queried the way its own map does) lists three Latvian members, all "Accredited" — International School of Riga (Kalnciema iela 118, Riga; IB DP and PYP, IB code 002334), and International School of Latvia (001796) and Exupery International School (060211), both in Piņķi — and the AEFE directory lists one school in Latvia, Lycée français international Jules-Verne de Riga (Patversmes iela 20; 529 pupils, all 15 levels homologated). Two state schools are counted on Internet Archive captures of their IB profiles, because ibo.org answers our requests with a Cloudflare challenge: Riga State Gymnasium No. 1 (001001, Diploma Programme since 16 July 1997; capture of April 2018) and Riga State Gymnasium No. 2 (050320, DP since 22 July 2014 and MYP since 8 January 2016; capture of November 2019).

Notes

A floor, not a tally. Two more Riga schools appear as IB World Schools only in search-engine views of ibo.org pages, with no live page or capture read: Riga State Gymnasium No. 3 (061962, DP authorised 13 February 2024) and the International Montessori School of Latvia (PYP, December 2024); with them the count would be 8, which fits the IB's Latvia total of 11 schools (9 DP, 5 MYP, 4 PYP, 1 CP, per the IB World Schools Yearbook). COBIS's member file (read 2026-10-19, last modified 30 September 2026) lists no school in Latvia, and the Accredited European Schools list (eursc.eu) has none in Latvia; no German school abroad (ZfA) in Riga was found — the Riga State German Gymnasium is a language-partner school and is not counted. King's College, The British School of Latvia (Mārupe), a UK-curriculum school the Yearbook advertises, appears in none of these registries and is not counted. The International School of Riga's own site calls itself "the only IB World School in Riga", which the IB profiles of the state gymnasia contradict.

Warsaw

IB World Schools directory (find-an-ib-school) ↗

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of

Jul 3, 2026

Verified

Jul 3, 2026

Method

Union of IB finder results for country=PL with 'Warsaw'/'Warszawa' keywords, deduplicated.

Notes

±2 uncertainty: the finder may include candidate schools; CIS/COBIS-only schools not yet counted.