Tax Police Discover That Even Criminals Don't Want to Pay the State - 14 Million Confiscated

While honest Liepāja residents dutifully pay their taxes every month and wonder where the money disappears, it turns out there's a whole army of people who completely ignore this process. Tax and customs police confiscated assets worth 14 million euros last year, proving that criminals are much smarter than we thought.

"I always wondered why my salary is so small after paying taxes," says Marija from Karosta. "Turns out, others just don't pay! Why didn't anyone tell me you could do that too?"

Employers have been particularly creative, signing contracts with foreign companies to avoid paying taxes. It's the same scheme as shopping in Lithuania, just much more complicated and illegal. In Riga, of course, they only talk about it, but in Liepāja we know that honest work is the only path to success.

The most interesting part is cigarette smuggling with weather balloons. While we enjoy colorful air balloons on Liepāja beach, it turns out some of them aren't carrying romantic letters, but contraband cigarettes. "I thought those were romantic couple's wishes," says Jānis from Vecliepāja. "But now I know it was just another business plan."

The most surprising fact in this whole story is that 20 percent of the cigarette market is illegal. This means every fifth smoker in Latvia is part of a criminal scheme. Good thing in Liepāja we focus more on fresh sea air than on dubious cigarettes.