The author continues studies on tax incentives for micro enterprises. Latvia has introduced a special tax regime-a micro-enterprise tax (MET), the improvement of which still continues to reduce its application for unfair tax competition. Following significant changes in the tax regulation, the popularity of MET in Latvia has decreased; though, it is still high, especially in the service sector. The micro-enterprise tax shall be retained considering the reduction of administrative and tax burdens; however, it is recommended to introduce a payment for every employee from his/her actual salary in addition to the payment from the enterprise turnover to ensure the tax sustainability and to improve the social security of micro-enterprise (ME) employees. Latvia's experience may be useful also for other countries, especially those with high unemployment and illegal employment rates, to stipulate involvement of the population in legal employment.

Payments of the micro-enterprise tax have been increasingly chosen by micro-enterprises since it is an opportunity to simplify the fulfillment of tax payment obligations as well as to decrease the tax burden for companies. The micro-enterprise tax has several drawbacks: it decreases the social security of micro-enterprise employees, restricts growth opportunities, as well as encourages artificial inclusion of the company into the status of micro-enterprises in order to decrease the tax burden. Nevertheless, the micro-enterprise tax can be considered as a good fiscal instrument to promote business activities thus providing employment. The paper analyses the results of the micro-enterprise tax implementation in Latvia.

The number of micro-enterprises, especially in the sphere of individual services, choosing to be the micro-enterprise taxpayers has increased since the introduction of the micro-enterprise tax in 2010. The share of micro-enterprise tax (MET) revenues in the state budget outlines an annual growing tendency. The MET plays an essential role in the improvement of the business environment in Latvia and in the increase of economic activities in rural regions. However, this tax due to the gaps of legislation is still applied not only by new entrepreneurs but also by the existing companies to reduce significantly the tax burden, thus, creating an unequal tax competition with other companies paying taxes consistent with the general procedure. The practical application of the MET highlights two main problems: 1) unfair tax competition among companies which is based on the fact that the dividend amount of capital companies is not limited in the micro-enterprises, and hence, these companies may considerably reduce the tax burden; 2) the establishment of a micro-enterprise only to reduce the labour costs would lead to the reduction of the amount of social insurance paid for employees and consequently to the reduction of the social security in the future. The research aim is to assess the former results related with the introduction of the MET and to provide solutions for the prevention of problematic aspects.The research results outline the necessity for the amendments in the Micro-enterprise Tax Law which would prescribe the maximum amount of dividends for the owners of capital companies -MET payers. Whereas, the MET rate should be related with the share of labour costs in the micro-enterprise to increase the amount of the state social insurance paid for the employees of micro-enterprises. It is recommended to increase the tax rate up to 12% if the share of labour costs exceeds 40% and to apply a 15% tax rate if the share of labour costs exceeds 60%. This would ensure the state social insurance object for the employees of micro-enterprises which is close to the state determined minimum salary. It is not recommended to increase the MET rate for other micro-enterprises where the share of labour costs does not exceed 40%, since this would reduce the competitiveness of these micro-enterprises.

The European Union (EU) and its Member States have set themselves the goal of achieving climate neutrality throughout the EU by 2050. The agricultural sector is one of the emitters of greenhouse gases. To meet its climate neutrality targets of reducing global temperature rise to below 2°C and limiting it to 1.5°C, the EU has adopted the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork strategy based on it. The set goals create the need to develop and implement new innovations. The agricultural sector will face a number of innovative approaches in the future, including the digitalization of agriculture and the use of biotechnology, expertise from microbiology. The agricultural sector will face significant changes in farming methods. The aim of the study is to explore agricultural innovations to promote climate neutrality, the tasks are to assess the differences in the definition of innovation, the problems of their implementation and the challenges in agricultural crop production and to identify the current situation in Latvian agriculture compared to Lithuania and Estonia in terms of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) emissions. The share of GHG generated by agricultural sector in Latvia is relatively high compared to the EU average. Among the Baltic States, the share of Latvia's GHG emissions in Latvia is almost 20%, which is higher than in Estonia, but lower than the GHG emissions generated by the Lithuanian agricultural sector. According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) data, the Lithuanian government has invested the most in agriculture compared to Estonia and Latvia. Investments of Latvian and Estonian governments in agriculture can be assessed as similar.

At the current stage of development of the Georgian economy and in conditions of existing resources, only the agriculture sector can contribute to the reduction of high levels of poverty and unemployment in the country. Improper assessment of the role and importance of the sector, lack of programmes based on scientific research, inconsistent reforms led to the low competitiveness of Georgian agricultural production and the prevalence of imported products on the internal market. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of tax reform on the development of the agriculture sector in Georgia, and to compare it with Latvia, as it has been implemented in both countries based on Estonian experience. It is substantiated by means of theoretical and empirical methods applied in the article, that the land reform, implemented in Georgia before the profit tax reform, as well as financing of certain projects in the sector, was carried out without proper analysis and assessment of expected risks. The research concludes that for the development of agriculture sector of Georgia, it is especially important, at the first stage, to elaborate and implement mechanisms of protection of internal market, develop the existing infrastructure, promote cooperative enterprises, extend tax benefits to all spheres of activities of agricultural cooperatives, commence the process of structural diversification and modernization of the sector, and overcome the obstacles existing on external markets.