Filing Your Tax Return in Lithuania (2026)

Do You Need to File?

Not everyone does. If you're a straightforward employee whose only income is a Lithuanian salary, your employer has already withheld and reported everything, and there may be nothing further required.

You generally do need to declare if any of the following apply:

• You registered individuali veikla or held a business certificate at any point in the year — see our individuali veikla guide
• You had more than one employer during the year
• You have foreign income — from abroad, or from work done outside Lithuania
• You received dividends, interest or capital gains
• You sold property or securities
• You want to claim deductions or a refund
• You're declaring assets where required
• Your tax allowance was applied incorrectly during the year

That covers the returns you cannot avoid. The other half of the question is the return nobody makes you file, which is often the one worth more.

File even when you don't have to, if there's a refund in it

The commonest reason to file voluntarily is to get money back. If your NPD tax-free allowance was applied incorrectly — very common if you changed jobs, had a gap in employment, or your income varied through the year — you may have overpaid. Declaring is how you reclaim it.

Dates and Deadlines

The statutory deadline is 1 May of the following year. In 2026 that falls on a Friday, and 1 May is Labour Day — a public holiday under article 123 of the Labour Code. Article 162 of the Law on Tax Administration moves a deadline landing on a non-working day to the following working day, and the two days after the holiday are a Saturday and a Sunday. So the whole thing rolls forward to Monday 4 May 2026, which is what VMI publishes.

Two deadlines that aren't 4 May

If you are permanently leaving Lithuania, you must declare income for the part of the year you were here by the day you depart — not the following May. And if you became a Lithuanian tax resident during 2025, article 28 gives you until 31 December 2026. Neither is intuitive, and both are easy to miss.

Which Form, and Its Annexes

Residents file GPM311, the annual income tax return. It is one core form with ten annexes, and you only complete the annexes that apply to you. Most employees with a single job touch one or two.

There is no GPM311A. You will see "GPM311A" referenced online. It does not exist. The annexes approved by VMI run B, C, D1, D2, E, F1, F2, G, with H1 and H2 added later for the investment account regime. If a guide tells you to complete annex A, that guide is wrong about other things too.

Non-residents use a different form — GPM314, with annexes GPM314A and GPM314B. See non-residents below.

The EDS System

Declarations are filed electronically through EDS — the Elektroninio deklaravimo sistema, VMI's electronic declaration system.

The declaration wizard runs in English

You do not need Lithuanian to file. VMI states that the EDS income declaration wizard — the step-by-step vedlys that walks you through the return — is available in Lithuanian, English, Russian and Ukrainian. Much of your data is pre-filled from what your employer and Sodra have already reported, so for many people it is a review-and-confirm exercise rather than a blank form. VMI makes no equivalent statement about the underlying annex forms, so expect some Lithuanian if you leave the wizard.

Getting logged in is the real obstacle

Not the language. VMI offers two routes into EDS, and the easy one is closed to a lot of foreigners.

VMI's own wording is unambiguous: "Per išorines sistemas… prisijungti gali tik užsienio asmenys, kurie turi leidimą laikinai arba nuolat gyventi Lietuvoje ir suteiktą lietuvišką asmens kodą" — login methods. Only foreigners with a residence permit and a personal code can log in through a bank.

If that isn't you, contact VMI to arrange credentials before the deadline rather than during the final week. Their helpline is +370 5 260 5060.

How to File, Step by Step

1. Log in to EDS

   Through internet banking or an e-signature if you hold a residence permit and a personal code; otherwise with credentials VMI issues you.

2. Select the tax period

   The calendar year you're declaring for — 2025 for the return due in May 2026.

3. Start the declaration wizard

   Switch the vedlys to English if you need to.

4. Check the pre-filled data

   Employment income and contributions are usually already there. Check them rather than assuming they're right — errors do occur, especially if you changed employer.

5. Add anything missing

   Foreign income, self-employment income, investment income, property sales.

6. Claim deductions

   Anything you're entitled to that isn't automatic.

7. Answer the form's questions and submit

   You'll see the calculated result — tax owed, or a refund due.

8. Pay anything owed, or wait for your refund

   Keep the confirmation.

If the pre-filled data doesn't match your situation — foreign income, a mid-year employer change, self-employment alongside a job — it is worth having someone check the return before you submit it.

What You Can Deduct

Less than most arrivals expect. Lithuania's deductible-expense list has been trimmed repeatedly, and two of the best-known reliefs were closed to new entrants at the start of 2025.

Deductions go on annex GPM311G, and two ceilings apply on top of the individual rules.

What remains deductible for the 2025 year

Reliefs the older guides still list, and what is left of them

Signed your life policy or Pillar III contract in 2025? No deduction. This is the change that surprises people. Life insurance premiums and Pillar III pension contributions remain deductible only under contracts signed on or before 31 December 2024. Sign a new policy in 2025 or later and the premiums buy you cover, but no tax relief. Existing contracts keep the relief on payments made up to 31 December 2034.

Home repairs, car repairs and childcare are gone altogether. You will still find guides listing them. VMI is explicit that the relief applies only to expenses incurred in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Anything from 2022 onwards is not deductible. Don't spend an evening collecting receipts for it.

Full list and conditions: VMI on reliefs for 2025 income.

The Rates

The return you file in May 2026 covers 2025 income, so 2025 rates are the ones that determine what you owe. The rates changed on 1 January 2026, which matters for the return you'll file the year after.

2025 — what this year's return is calculated on

VDU is the average national wage the thresholds are pegged to. For 2025 it was €2,108.88 a month, per VMI's summary of the 2025 changes.

From 1 January 2026 — three bands instead of two

The new middle band is the change. Enacted by Law No. XV-343 of 26 June 2025, amended by No. XV-680 of 16 December 2025. Dividends stay at a flat 15%. 2026 VDU is €2,312.15. Source: VMI on the changes from 1 January 2026. More detail in our income tax guide.

Non-Residents

If you're not a Lithuanian tax resident but received income here, different rules and a different form apply.

• Non-residents declare on Form GPM314, the annual income tax return for a non-resident of Lithuania, with annexes GPM314A and GPM314B
• The current version was approved by VMI order No. VA-112 of 20 December 2019 and applies to income from 2019 onwards
• Only Lithuanian-source income is generally in scope
• VMI issues Lithuanian taxpayer identification numbers to foreigners working and residing here
• Double taxation treaties may affect your position

Confirm your own filing date with VMI. The 4 May deadline above is the resident deadline, and it does not automatically carry over to GPM314.

Tax residency isn't the same as immigration status. You can hold a residence permit and not be a tax resident, or be a tax resident without a permit. Residency for tax purposes turns on tests including days present and centre of interests. If you moved mid-year, worked in two countries, or maintain ties elsewhere, get this determined properly — it changes what you must declare and where.

Getting a Refund

Refunds are more common than people expect, and the usual cause is the NPD — the tax-free allowance.

NPD is applied monthly by your employer based on your monthly salary. But it's ultimately an annual entitlement. If your income was uneven across the year, the monthly application may not match your annual position — and the difference comes back to you when you declare.

Situations where a refund is likely:

• You started work partway through the year — arrived in Lithuania in, say, July
• You had a gap between jobs
• Your income varied significantly month to month
• You had more than one employer and the allowance was applied more than once, or not at all
• You're entitled to deductions that weren't applied during the year

Your first year in Lithuania is the likeliest refund. If you arrived mid-year and only earned for part of it, your annual NPD entitlement was probably larger than what was applied month by month. That's a straightforward overpayment, and declaring is how you get it back. Worth filing even if nothing obliges you to.

When the money arrives

File by the deadline and VMI pays the overpayment by 31 July. File after it and the rule changes to 90 days from the day you submit a correctly completed — or corrected — declaration.

Both periods come from article 87 of the Law on Tax Administration, which carves income tax out of the generic refund timetable. You may see "30 days" quoted for tax refunds in Lithuania; that is the general rule and it is not the one that governs your annual return. VMI sets out the position on its refund timing page.

That 31 July date is the practical argument for filing in good time. A return submitted a week late doesn't just risk a penalty — it moves your refund from a fixed July date to a 90-day window that starts whenever you get round to it.

If You File Late

Late submission is an administrative offence under article 187(1) of the Code of Administrative Offences. The sanction is a warning, or a fine of €80 to €180 — and the same provision covers filing incorrect data, not just filing late.

That is modest as penalties go, and a first offence often draws the warning. The costlier consequences are the two that follow automatically: late filing delays any refund you're owed, and interest runs on tax you owe and haven't paid.

That interest — delspinigiai — is 0.027% per day from 1 August 2026. The Finance Ministry re-sets the rate quarterly, so check the current quarter rather than assuming: it was 0.026% in February 2026 and 0.027% from May.

If you've missed a deadline, file anyway. Filing late is considerably better than not filing, and if you're due a refund you're simply keeping VMI holding your money.

You can amend a declaration you've already submitted, and the window depends on what you're amending. VMI allows individuali veikla data to be corrected for the 3 prior years, and other income and deductions for the 5 prior years.

Amending upward carries no penalty — if you get there first. Article 139(4) of the Law on Tax Administration (MAĮ) disapplies the penalties in article 139(1) and (3) where you notice after filing that you declared too little tax, and you correct and submit the declaration before the day the tax administrator issues the order to inspect you. After that day the protection is gone, and article 139(1) sets the penalty at 20% to 100% of the shortfall.

Interest still runs. Article 96(1)(1) charges delspinigiai on tax declared but paid after its due date, and there is no exception for a voluntary correction. Amending means you pay the tax later than you should have, so interest accrues from the original deadline at the daily rate above. Both articles are in the consolidated MAĮ.

Amend early, not eventually. Volunteering a correction protects you from the penalty but not from the interest. And the protection has an expiry date you don't control: it ends the day an inspection is ordered. Waiting adds interest and risks that order landing first. If you find the error, correct it.

Common Situations

You arrived in Lithuania partway through the year

Check your tax residency status for that year, and file — there's a good chance you overpaid through NPD being applied monthly against a partial year's income. If you became a Lithuanian tax resident during 2025, article 28 of the Income Tax Law gives you until 31 December 2026, not 4 May.

You're self-employed under individuali veikla

You must declare — including in a year when the activity earned you nothing. Your income, deductions and contributions all flow through the annual declaration, on annex GPM311C. See our individuali veikla guide.

You hold an investment account

The investicinė sąskaita regime has its own annexes — H1 for the account itself, H2 for the transactions inside it — and its own deadline of 1 June 2026 for both filing and payment.

You have income from your home country

If you're a Lithuanian tax resident, your worldwide income is generally in scope. Double taxation treaties usually prevent you being taxed twice, but the income still typically needs declaring. This is where professional advice earns its cost.

You're a student working part-time

If your only income was a Lithuanian salary, there may be nothing to do. But if you worked for more than one employer or only part of the year, check whether you're owed a refund. See working as a student.

You sold property or shares

Capital gains generally need declaring. Property held for a long period may be exempt — the rules depend on holding period and use, so check your specific position.

You left Lithuania during the year

Leaving does not end the obligation — it accelerates it. A resident permanently departing Lithuania must declare income for the period from the start of the tax year to departure by the day they leave. And if you had been a permanent resident for at least three consecutive prior tax periods and spent 183 days or more here during your departure year, a full-year declaration follows the next May as well.

Common Mistakes

Frequently Asked Questions

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