Romanian MP proposes tax for local Orthodox Church

Social Democrat Party (PSD) senator Eugen Teodorovici, a former Finance Minister in the Victor Ponta government and currently an adviser to Prime Minister Mihai Tudose, has put forth a proposal to tax the revenues of the Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR). The state together with BOR would identify the church’s economic activities that can be taxed. The resulting tax amount would continue to be managed by the Church but directed towards areas established by the state, mostly of social relevance. “We can find a formula that the Church accepts and that the public would welcome very well, meaning: we need to see what are the economic activities that can be taxed. We can leave it to the Church to manage the resulted amounts but in an area that state establishes, of a social type,” Teodorovici said in an interview with Digi24, quoted by Mediafax. The senator added that there are other areas that state can get money from, such as property tax, but these would not be easily accepted by the Church. “If we do the math on how the Romanian state financed the Church in the last ten or 27 years, we will see that these are significant sums. But we need to find a balance. I repeat, I have no doubts that the proposal I would like to make will be accepted by BOR,” Teodorovici argued, quoted by News.ro. The Romanian Orthodox Church posted a profit of EUR 3.7 million in 2015. The profit was made from the sale of candles, icons, donations, weddings or travels, according to the balance sheets submitted to the Finance Ministry. Head of Romanian Orthodox Church to earn more than a secret service director editor@romania-insider.com