Romania's tax authority gives EUR 3.1 mln fines after controls at wholesale centers

Romania’s tax authority ANAF has controlled 2,200 companies during its “Cristal” operation aimed at verifying the activity in wholesale centers. The ANAF inspectors have issued total fines worth over EUR 3.1 million and confiscated goods and cash worth close to EUR 1.1 million, from October 19 until November 5. As part of this operation, the tax authority also controlled one of the biggest wholesale center in Romania, Dragonul Rosu (The Red Dragon), located in Eastern Bucharest, where a lot of merchandise from China is traded. ANAF checked 331 firms operating in Dragonul Rosu, and issued EUR 1.26 million worth of fines or seizure orders. The inspectors have suspended the activity of three companies and sealed some 185 shops whose owners either fled during the control or failed to produce documents for their merchandise. A group of company owners in various wholesale centers have launched a call to their colleagues to shut down their shops for one day, on November 11, as a sign of protest against ANAF’s controls, reports local Profit.ro. They are unhappy with what they call the “aggressive way” the tax inspectors do their job, not leaving any margin for error in evaluating their inventories and bragging with their results in the media, which stresses the managers of these companies. To this, the ANAF replied simply that more shops would be closed, not only on November 11, if they tried to dodge taxes. editor@romania-insider.com