Late-payment interest relief no longer needs prior payment

Taxpayers may now be relieved of assessed late-payment interest (delspinigiai) without having paid or suffered collection of it firstVMI. VMI's 9 September 2026 letter No. RTD-93 amends the commentary on Article 100(1) and (2) of the Mokesčių administravimo įstatymas (MAĮ)VMI, aligning it with the 19 June 2025 MAĮ amendment law No. XV-309, whose Article 14 amending Article 100(1)E TAR is in force from 1 July 2025VMI: relief turns on the legal grounds in Article 100(1) alone, no longer on whether the interest was paid or collectedVMI. The commentary was agreed with the public and the Customs Department, and VMI asks practitioners to follow it.

Article 100(1) as amended provides relief from assessed interest or part of it where a special tax law so allows, where an Article 141(1) ground exists, or where collection is economically or socially inexpedient within the meaning of Article 113(1)(3)VMI — a ground the statute text reserves to taxpayers who are natural persons. The readings attached by the RTD-93 letter spell out that a special-law route applies where the Seimas sets a dedicated relief procedure and conditions, that any single Article 141(1) ground, lack of fault, force-majeure breach, harmless breach or breach caused by erroneous general guidance or a recorded wrong consultation, suffices, and that a natural person is relieved where the administrator, assessing economic and social position, finds collection inexpedient and the arrears recognisable as bad debt under Article 113(1)(3).

Under Article 100(2) relief is granted by the tax administrator, or during a tax dispute also by the dispute body: the competent local or central administrator, or, while a dispute runs, the central administrator (VMI or the Customs Department), the Mokestinių ginčų komisija or a court. Where the decision sits with the administrator, procedure is set centrally: VMI follows the Atleidimo nuo baudų, delspinigių ir palūkanų taisyklės (order No. VA-144 of 26 July 2004), and customs interest follows the 18 March 2025 order No. IBE-201 procedure. Refusals are appealable under MAĮ Chapter IX, with a local administrator's negative decision first challenged to the central administrator, then to the commission or a court.

Legal basis: Lietuvos Respublikos mokesčių administravimo įstatymas, Article 100(1), as amended by 2025 m. birželio 19 d. įstatymas Nr. XV-309, Article 14 applying from 1 July 2025, with the Article 100(1)-(2) commentary; VMI prie FM 2026 m. rugsėjo 9 d. raštas Nr. RTD-93 amending the MAĮ commentary.