PwC, EY: Romania's announced solidarity tax will send IT experts away

Romania’s plan to introduce the solidarity tax will cancel the effect of tax exemption for IT experts and could determine them to leave Romania, said PwC Managing Partner Mihaela Mitroi and EY Romania Executive Director Gabriel Sincu, reports local Mediafax. The tax could also have the same effect on other high-qualified employees, they added. The solidarity tax could operate as an additional tax, which will be a burden for all taxpayers, regardless of their activity field, and implicitly for IT experts, said Mitroi. On Monday, Romanian prime minister Mihai Tudose said that the Government would not introduce the turnover tax, but is considering introducing a solidarity tax, and it is now doing a simulation on this new tax. This tax has also been mentioned in the new governing program. The solidarity tax would cancel the effects of tax exemption for IT employees involved in software production, according to the PwC representative. The IT companies will need to find new solutions to keep the same salaries for these employees, as they could find other jobs in the country or abroad, given the high competition in the sector. Such a measure could “increase the brain drain phenomenon because it mostly impacts the most productive and highest-qualified employees,” Mitroi added. editor@romania-insider.com