If the mid-year budget is bad, we can expect either one-day special taxes, perhaps a solidarity tax, much tighter fiscal controls, or a postponement of VAT refunds, which was done before when there was no more money. budget, – said Angela Roshka, founding partner of Taxhouse.

She stated this, referring to the threats she sees this year for the business environment. One of them is a possible recession, because “something is starting to show in America and Europe.”

“We have ambitious plans to reduce the budget deficit this year compared to last year, and inflation will be lower. Economic growth will be much lower. On the other hand, we have money coming from PNRR that will mitigate the crisis. So it’s not that dramatic. Certain sectors will be encouraged. Others may be affected by real estate and IT,” she said at the TaxEU forum.

What does a foreign investor with a lot of money who wants to invest in Romania see

Angela Roshka also talked about what a foreign investor with a lot of money will see if he wants to make an investment in Romania:

• He sees that we have relatively stable tax rates in Romania. Basically, we are talking about income tax, which has been 16% for years.

• He sees that our income tax is stable. The only rate was 16%, since the contribution change, it is 10%. We have European VAT. It is stable. Of course, there were rate fluctuations, revaluation of objects that appeared and disappeared over time. In principle, this is a stable system.

“I will not go into the details of why the single course is good. In principle, this is still a favorable moment for Romania at the current stage of economic development. This contributed to the formation of the middle class. This helped keep even more people from leaving the country. This helped to bring to light gray or black income,” explained the representative of the tax office.

• This is the reason why the business environment continues to support this system of taxation.

“However, we have competitive taxation when looking at neighboring countries. Of course, there are countries around us with a lower corporate tax than ours (Hungary – 9%, Bulgaria – 10%). The European average is 21%. I looked at OECD countries, they have an average of 23%,” she said.

What are the disadvantages of Romania in the eyes of the investor?

1. Inconsistency of political messages regarding taxation in the medium and long term

“As an example: the recent solidarity tax. They talked about it again, and it entered the discussion. The Bachelor: To Stay or Not To Stay? Are progressive people coming? Social Security: Are rates changing? Are they limited, reduced, not reduced?”, he gave an example.

2. ANAF is still not reformed and only partially digitized. We need a proactive ANAF on the technical aspects of issues, species.

3. Excessive taxation of labor.

“Everyone knows why it appears. Mainly unlimited social contributions to high salaries, but not only,” she said.

4. All this means trials with ANAF, all trials and courts in Romania, which are very difficult.

“The investor is looking at it. He wants to understand: if I have a problem with ANAF and I’m having a debate, how long will it take to clarify? 5-7 years? In Romania, we are in a very bad situation,” she added.

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