Ciolacu: "We will no longer allow hidden and outsourced profits and tax optimizations"

• Over 550 changes to the Fiscal Code, in the last eight years • Ciolacu: "Fiscal legislation in Romania resembles a huge colander, through which billions of euros flow unimpeded"

More than 550 changes to the Fiscal Code, through more than a hundred laws, ordinances and emergency ordinances, were made in the last eight years. This is one of the conclusions of the study "Amendments to the new Fiscal Code: Inventory and impact (2015 - 2023)", launched on Friday at the headquarters of the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

Present at the event, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu stated that the fiscal legislation in Romania resembles "a huge strainer, through which billions of euros flow unhindered": "It is no longer possible to operate efficiently under such conditions. It is obvious that all our fiscal legislation resembles today with a huge strainer, through which billions of euros flow unimpeded, on a system of aberrant tax exceptions. We cannot wish for a European country, like outside, with incomes of the offshore economy type, i.e. tax haven country, but with expenses like in the European social model. It has reached the absurd situation where Romania has the highest labor taxation for those with low incomes and families with children, in the European Union. At the same time, a very low taxation has been maintained, with huge tax privileges , for certain categories of taxpayers who earn a lot. Such a thing, from my point of view, cannot continue".

Marcel Ciolacu emphasized, quoted by Agerpres, that it is necessary to introduce a tax system based on equity, fairness and respect for "the honest taxpayer, who pays his taxes correctly and of total intolerance" towards tax evaders.

"I will take responsibility for a tax reform that includes a large part of the extremely correct principles of those who made this study. Our goal is not to discourage investment. On the contrary, we come with provisions that exempt money from any form of taxation invested by Romanian companies. We will support and protect start-ups. We are willing to help production and processing in Romania through all possible mechanisms. What I will not tolerate, however, is simple: trickery, money made only from companies that have an employee, a computer and issue invoices, because it is clear that there is only a disguised employment contract, in order not to pay labor taxes. We will no longer allow disguised and outsourced profits, tax optimizations. We can no longer accept that only those many suckers pay and the sly ones don't," declared the prime minister.

The official stated that the Executive will undertake in the Parliament a package of spending reductions in the budget system, to combat evasion and eliminate as many exceptions as possible: "There will come a time, next year, when we will have to undertake together with you a real fiscal reform of Romania, as a state that is no longer developing. A stable, developed state that will join the OECD and that must enter into a normal fiscal logic. Until then, I do not assume only one thing: to leave Romania without European funds, to leave Romania outside of Europe, with all the costs that I will have politically. This I cannot assume. It would mean the biggest disaster for Romania. We do not have other way than within the European Union".

Taxation must be discussed "responsibly", with "the studies of some experts at the table", in a "rigorous and respected" framework, such as the one at the BNR, Marcel Ciolacu believes, noting that these discussions should not be conducted in "populist televised debates and with petty approaches", in which "characters who earn millions of euros annually" pay taxes as much as an employee with the minimum wage.

We have potential and opportunities for economic development, is the opinion of Nicolae Ciucă, the president of the Senate, who emphasizes that we are in a moment where we have all committed ourselves to having a medium and long-term project. The official mentioned, quoted by news.ro, that, recently, he had meetings at the political level with the prime minister several times a week, even a day, with the business environment, with the working groups at the party level, with specialists from various fields, expressing his belief that the best solutions will be found to encourage investments and support the business environment: "I was talking with a specialist in the field and he said: "Sir, take what measures you think are appropriate, but think - note that, however, as things look at the moment, it is a working machine, the economy has not caught the flu, if I used the term machine, the engine has not caught the flu». There is still potential and opportunities for economic development. We are at a moment when we have all committed to having a medium and long-term project. It is a decision at a political level for such an approach, it remains as dialogue, communication with the business environment, both national and international, because we must also talk about foreign companies and the roles they play in the economy Romanian and the need for the transfer of technology and know-how in our economy, I believe that all these must be on the priority agenda of the Executive and political leaders".

In the opinion of the president of the Senate, there are a number of disparities that we must eliminate and overcome.