Romania’s finance minister denies intention to increase any taxes or social contributions

Romania’s finance minister Anca Dragu officially says her ministry doesn’t have any project to change the Fiscal Code that includes tax or social contribution increases. She made this announcement on Wednesday, September 9, after the local media wrote that the Government planned to change the Fiscal Code and increase social security and health insurance contributions for people getting revenues from independent activities, quoting an emergency ordinance draft. The Finance Ministry only aims to simplify and stimulate investments via fiscal measures, and not to increase any taxes or contributions, Dragu added. “I’ve asked the fiscal specialists from the ministry to make an internal analysis that includes several scenarios for simplifying, cutting red tape, and creating better conditions for the business environment. In this context, increasing taxes was not taken into account for the package of measures to modify the Fiscal Code. We won’t include measures that create extra fiscal burdens for any type of taxpayer, either companies, individuals, or freelancers,” finance minister Anca Dragu said in a press release. She firmly denied that her ministry considered increasing contributions for individuals registered for business (PFA) or freelancers. She also rejected any fiscal amnesty measure. The information in the media according to which individuals with unjustified wealth of up to EUR 1 million will get a grace period until March 31, 2017, to pay their taxes and get amnesty “does not reflect a Finance Ministry’s decision”, according to the official press release. The information about the Finance Ministry's intention to change the social security contributions (CAS) was apparently leaked to the press by the ministry's fiscal legislation department, led by state secretary Gabriel Biris. Minister Dragu said in a press conference that she would talk to Biris about this leak and denied that such a draft as that presented to the press ever reached her desk, according to local Profit.ro. The Finance Ministry's supposed intention to change the Fiscal Code by Emergency Ordinance has triggered many negative comments from some political parties, including the Social Democratic Party (PSD). editor@romania-insider.com