Romanian Companies Choke On 650 Non-Fiscal Taxes Levied On Them

Romania's Association of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, or CNIMMPR, protests against the ever increasing number of taxes companies pay to fiscal and non fiscal entities. In all, the number of taxes which are not directed to the state budget stays at 650, says CNIMMPR president Ovidiu Nicolescu, while the Ministry of Finance identified only 122 on its web-site.

Romania's Association of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, or CNIMMPR, protests against the ever increasing number of taxes companies pay to fiscal and non fiscal entities. In all, the number of taxes which are not directed to the state budget stays at 650, says CNIMMPR president Ovidiu Nicolescu, while the Ministry of Finance identified only 122 on its web-site.

Of the 650 non-fiscal taxes, some 200 of them could be easily done away with to profit companies, which now pay an aggregate three billion Euro per year via these 200 taxes, Nicolescu said.

The Registry of Non-fiscal Taxes drafted by the Ministry of Finance lacks major tax-collectors as the state monopolies, local authorities or private entities with a monopolist position in their filed of activity, and this “was very dangerous,” said Nicolescu. Among those entities collecting money from the population but not recorded in the Registry stay the Association of Notaries, the Association of Expert Accountants and Auditors or the Association of Fiscal Consultants.

“We are paying taxes to mob-like structures, and I state this with all responsibility. It was enough for instance, that three people to make up a builders association, for instance, know a parliamentarian or a government minister and make it into law that whoever erects whatever building should pay them 0.5% of the total cost of the construction,” added Florea Pirvu, vice president for CNIMMPR.

The SME association that Nicolescu leads wants the Registry of Non-Fiscal Taxes to comprise comprehensive data, of all taxes not going to the state budget that companies have to pay, with a view to cut down their number in joint meeting of government, trade unions and company owners. “One third of these taxes could be easily done away with,” Nicolescu said. His association also asks for a cap on the aggregate amount levied as taxes from companies to be set at 42% of turnover, as in the other EU countries.

“It will be up to the central and local authorities to fight between them which will take more of the taxes; however, the bottom line should be that companies would not be paying above the 42% of their turnover limit,” said Pirvu.