Romania's new tax agency head says tax collection lags behind estimates

Former finance minister Ionut Misa, who was recently named head of the tax agency ANAF, thinks that 2018 will be a difficult one in terms of tax collection, as the results in the first months of this year have been “far behind” estimates. The budget revenues were 1.4% lower in the first two months of this year compared to the same period of last year, while the budget project for 2018 provides a 14% increase in revenues. Misa believes that digitization is one of the keys to increasing the tax collection. He also asked the ANAF employees to focus more on helping the taxpayers, local Agerpres reported. “From my point of view, the key is in assisting the taxpayers. I kindly ask you to interact more with the taxpayers and offer them answers to their questions,” the ANAF head said in a meeting with the regional tax direction in Iasi. “I want us to eliminate the templates in which we copy paste from the fiscal code or fiscal procedure code. Believe me that those who have written a request to ANAF can read on their own. It’s important that we interpret the tax code or fiscal procedure code so that they know exactly what they have to do,” he added. He thinks that the tax agency needs to increase the quality of its services in order to improve its image. editor@romania-insider.com