Romanian Finance Minister: Tax on tips, “an experience, not a failure”

The taxation of tips was “an experience, not a failure”, said Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici. On Friday last week, Romania’s Finance Ministry decided to give up on the measure, after having introduced it two weeks prior. Teodorovici said that the idea to tax tips showed up in 2012, but the Government adopted it only now, after Tax Authority ANAF controls and closing several firms, reports local Mediafax. “The whole market was unsatisfied with closing companies, so we went for this solution.” The Finance Minister said that it wasn’t a measure to increase budget revenues, but to solve a certain issue. The Government implemented the measure following talks with industry representatives, Teodorovici said. However, the protests stirred by the measure led to new consultations with industry representatives at the end of last week and to the decision to cut the tax on tips, the Minister added. National Liberal deputy Andreea Paul asked Teodorovici to resign and asked for the full refund of the amounts the state has received as tax on tips. Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said that introducing this tax was a mistake, reports local Capital.ro. However, he added that it is better to fix the mistakes than continue with them. editor@romania-insider.com