Romania plans to merge fiscal control authorities, schedule regular control every 3 and 5 years

The Romanian Government will merge several fiscal control authorities, such as the Financial Police (Garda Financiara), the fiscal inspection and the Customs House and Anti-Fraud authorities, into a single structure, according to Finance Minister Daniel Chitoiu. The new structure will check small and medium companies every three years and bigger companies every five years. A tax collection system reshuffle is also in plan, as well as the change of several important laws, such as the Fiscal Code and the law combating money laundering. Investors in Romania frequently complain about the instability of laws, especially in the fiscal area, with new measures often imposed almost overnight, reducing predictability and reducing the country's attractiveness for new investments. Romania had some 590,000 active companies at the end of 2012, and 80 percent of them had a turnover under EUR 100,000, according to recent statistics. Only 22,000 companies have a turnover higher than EUR 1 million. Romania ranks first in Europe and fourth in the world on the number of taxes a company has to pay on an yearly basis, with 96 taxes. This is two times higher than other countries, such as Poland and Slovakia. Romania went up on this ranking compared to 2006, when the number of taxes was 89. Second in Europe comes Poland, with just 40 yearly taxes. editor@romania-insider.com