Romanian liberal leader wants to tax multinationals’ profits

Alina Gorghiu, president of the National Liberal Party (PNL), challenged the Parliament to support a PNL bill that aims to tax the profits multinationals make in Romania with a 16% rate. She referred to the hidden profits transferred by local subsidiaries of foreign companies abroad via other mechanisms, as the profits officially reported by all companies in Romania are currently taxed with a 16% rate. She asked the Social Democratic Party (PSD) to support this bill the way PNL also supported PSD’s bill to remove 102 non-fiscal taxes. The removal of the taxes, which was initiated by PSD leader Liviu Dragnea, passed through the Senate and Chamber of Deputies in just two weeks. “Today I will ignore that I am a political opponent of PSD, a political opponent of Liviu Dragnea. Today I’m not interested in political polemics, but we are talking about two laws which I regard as important,” Gorghiu wrote on her Facebook page. She added that the law proposed by PNL, which transposes a European Directive that all member states should adopt by 2019, should be implemented as fast as possible, because it is in the interest of the Romanian state. “Why wait?” she said. “Why not start today, through the Parliament’s vote, to tax by 16% the profit of international companies that send their profit abroad through various stratagems? Romanian entrepreneurs pay the tax on profit in Romania while the others take it outside through various strategies." She asked the MPs to sign her bill, which she estimates would bring four times higher revenues to the state budget from the tax on profits. editor@romania-insider.com