Romania plans to cut red tape by eliminating 70 taxes 'within a day'

Romanian found as many as 70 taxes which add to the red tape and which can be eliminated within a single day without affecting the state budget. The news came via Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who said a new law to cut these taxes is underway. Representatives of the country's Finance Ministry even believe 30-40 more taxes that can be cut will be further found, the PM added. Ponta asked the Finance Minister Ioana Petrescu to submit a list of needed laws which would, based on the analysis so far, clean up the taxation system in Romania. Neither the PM, nor the Finance Minister mentioned any of the 70 taxes that would be canceled under this new move. The country ranks low in business studies looking at total number of taxes to be paid and at the level of bureaucracy for business owners. Romania ranks 136th in PwC's Paying Taxes Report 2013, with taxes that require 216 hours a year to deal with. Romania actually requires the highest number of payments across the EU: 41 payments a year, at a considerable gap from the second place, Iceland, with 29 payments. At the other end of the scale, in Norway, only four payments are required a year. Romania actually managed to reduce the number of payments from 131, to just 41, after it allowed employers to submit just one joint payroll return for all the social contributions and the employment income tax. editor@romania-insider.com