Order of the General Director of the Customs Department under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania No 1B-289 of 23 April 2007 Amending the Order of the General Director of the Customs Department under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania No 1B-329 of 13 April 2004 On Approval of the Instruction for the Completion of the General Administration Document (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 47–1844).

      The Order partly amended the Instruction for the Completion of the General Administration Document by changing the rules for filling in box 15a for the code of the sending/exporting country, box 29 for the institution of border crossing (previously, these boxes were not filled in) and the rules for filling in box 2 for indicating the sender/exporter (after the amendment, this box is not filled in if the goods are declared for customs warehousing clearance).

      The Order came into force on 2 May 2007.

      Order of the General Director of the Customs Department under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania No 1B-291 of 23 April 2007 On Approval of the Form for an Information Announcement of the Verification of the Customs Value of Imported Goods after the Release of Goods (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 49–1913).

      This Order approved and presented an attached amended form for an information announcement of the verification of the customs value of imported goods after the release of goods and annulled the Order of the General Director of the Customs Department No 1B-676 of 1 July 2004 On Approval of the Sample Information Announcement of the Verification of the Customs Value of Imported Goods after the Release of Goods.

      The Order came into force on 10 May 2007.

      Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania No 339 of 4 April 2007 Amending the Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania No 1458 of 15 December 2000 On Approval of the List of Objects of Stamp Duty, the Stamp Duty Rates, and the Rules for Its Payment and Refund (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 42–1584).

      This Order amended the list of stamp duty objects by including Paragraphs 3.69-3 – 3.69-5 and 3.70-6 – 3.70-17 establishing the rates of levies for issuing licences to transport cargo, passengers and luggage by railways.

      The Order came into force on 15 April 2007.

      Law No X-1067 of 3 April 2007 Amending Article 21 of the Law on Income Tax of Individuals of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 43–1629).

      This Law amends Article 21 of the Law on Income Tax of Individuals. The amendment states that the expenses deductible from the income of a permanent resident of Lithuania may include expenses of vocational training (formerly, only expenses for studies were deductible).

      The Law comes into force on 1 January 2008.

      Law No X-1054 of 20 March 2007 Amending the Law on Natural Gas of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette Valstybės Žinios), No 43–1626). The Law was set in a new wording in order to harmonise its provisions with the provisions of the Directive 2003/55/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2003 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas and the Council Directive 2004/67/EC of 26 April 2004 concerning measures to safeguard security of natural gas supply.

      The purpose of the Law is to establish the general principles for the organisation of functioning of the operations in the natural gas sector, operations of gas companies, their interaction and relations with consumers in supply, distributions, liquefaction and storage of natural gas.

      Unlike the former wording, this Law validates the right of all users to choose a gas supplier from 1 July 2007. The Law also specifies the general gas sector organisation rules, defines in more detail transmission, liquefied gas storage, distribution system operator conditions, rights and obligations, establishes the requirement for the integrated gas companies to separate transmission, distribution and other activities from the gas supply activity (by establishing a subsidiary or a separate entity), etc.

      Law No X-1068 of 3 April 2007 Amending Article 8 of the Law on State Social Insurance of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 43–1630).

      This amendment provides for adding insurance contributions for additional (voluntary) health insurance paid on behalf of the policyholder‘s employees to the list of income not subject to social insurance contributions, provided that the insurance object is payments for the health care services provided to the insured.

      The Law comes into force on 1 July 2007.

      Order of the Head of the State Tax Inspectorate under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania No VA-25 of 28 March 2007 On Approval of the Methodology for Imposing Fines and Calculating Penalties (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 38–1433).

      This Order annulled the Order of the Head of the State Tax Inspectorate under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania No 284 of 22 November 2001 On Approval of the Methodology for Imposing Fines for Breaches of Tax Laws and Calculating Penalties.

      In accordance with the new methodology, fines and penalties are calculated in accordance with the general procedure established by the Tax Administration Law, and not by each separate tax as previously. There are three cases when fines are imposed for the payable tax that was illegitimately reduced by a taxpayer: 1) when the taxpayer failed to calculate undeclared tax; 2) when a taxpayer failed to declare a declarable tax; 3) when the taxpayer illegitimately applied a lower tax rate. Additionally, a fine may be imposed for calculation of an increased VAT amount refundable from the budget. The amount of the fine imposed varies from 10 % to 50 % of the deficient tax amount calculated. The standard rate of a fine without applying extenuating or aggravating circumstances is 30 %. An exception is applied only in case of arrears of social insurance contributions, when the amount of the fine calculated equals a double amount of the non-calculated contribution.

      The new methodology provides for the principles of penalty calculation, which do not essentially differ from the principles of the former procedures, it is stressed, however, that the penalty rates are established quarterly by an order of the Minister of Finance.

      The Order came into force on 28 March 2007.

      Law No X-1086 of 12 April 2007 Amending Articles 13 and 16 of the Law on Tax Administration of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 46–1720).

      This Law partly changes the list of taxes administered by the Law on Tax Administration: the surplus tax in the sugar sector is recorded instead of the white C-sugar tax, and the production tax in the sugar sector instead of the quota sugar production tax. The tax on additional sugar production is removed from the list.

      The Order came into force on 26 April 2007.

      Law No X-1065 of 3 April 2007 Amending the Law on Vocational Education and Training of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette (Valstybės Žinios), No 43–1627).

      The Law was presented in a new wording. The objectives of the Law are to implement the reform of vocational education and training that would ensure that the qualification granted matches the labour market needs, to ensure the transparency, flexibility, cknowledgement and accessibility of granting qualifications, to rationalise the network of vocational education programmes, to establish authorisations of separate state institutions in the area of professional training and regulate the Lithuanian qualifications system and its management.

      Unlike the previously valid wording, this Law incorporates the general professional training system: expanded understanding of the labour market vocational education and validated continuing vocational training including training of persons who have been notified of dismissal, who are changing or improving qualification as well as unemployed persons. The Law also validates the possibility to acknowledge the competencies gained during a person‘s non-formal vocational training as programmes of formal professional education or a part of a respective qualification level; vocational training is separated from the competence assessment and granting a qualification; a common methodology is established for the calculation of funds allocated to formal vocational education and competence assessment per person, etc.