Romanian tax agency finds firms’ payment discipline improved in Jan-Sep

Romania’s tax collection agency ANAF calculated supplementary payments to budget in amount to RON 4.43 billion (EUR 950 million) for the firms subject to controls during the first three quarters of last year. The number of criminal complaints against representatives of the companies dropped significantly and the volume of financial damages generated by their deeds more than halved compared to the same period of 2017. Data from ANAF analyzed by local Profit.ro shows that the financial discipline has improved greatly -- a situation that, nonetheless, is not visible in the volume of budget revenues as a share of the GDP, which lags below 30% amid very high VAT tax evasion in the range of several percentage points of GDP. Profit.ro also wrote that, albeit ANAF provides no breakdown for foreign and locally owned companies, the accusations expressed by the Government when passing the emergency ordinance 114/2018 are not founded on evidences. The Government blamed foreign firms for some wrongdoings (transfer pricing, mainly, but also collusion and price setting, quality issues related to goods sold in Eastern Europe as well) when deciding to levy new taxes in several key sectors, including banking, energy and telecom. The most recent data from ANAF suggests firms are paying their taxes on time and the Government only wants to raise more money for paying the wages to employees in the public sector “that rose at alarming rates”, Profit.ro concluded. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Shutterstock)