Lithuania Up Two Positions in PwC and World Bank’s Paying Taxes Report

Lithuania has jumped two places to 27^th globally in the 2017 Paying Taxes report, issued by the World Bank Group and PwC. The report ranks countries based on the ease of paying taxes, and this year’s report has an added criterion – post-filing. This indicator analyses the amount of involvement required from tax payers after they have filed and paid their taxes. And Lithuania’s strong performance in this category, scoring 97 out of 100, was one of the main reasons behind its jump up the rankings.

The report uses four indicators to create the overall ranking for each country. It considers total tax rate, time required to prepare, file and pay taxes, the number of tax payments per year, and, as of 2017, the administrative burden on tax payers after they have filed their taxes.

Lithuania scored highest in this final indicator, which has four sub-indicators: the time required to obtain a VAT refund, the likelihood and the duration of a corporate income tax audit, and the need for the tax payer to be involved in both cases. Overall for this indicator, Lithuania scored 97.6 out of 100. This score is well above both the average for the European and Central Asian region (71.9) and the average for OECD countries (85.1).

A strong performance in this new indicator has helped to boost Lithuania’s overall ranking up to 27^th. This places it ahead of the likes of Germany (48^th), the Czech Republic (53^rd) and the US (36^th).