Marcel Boloş: "The e-VAT measure was introduced in the interest of the Romanian state"

The Minister of Finance, Marcel Boloş, responded, yesterday, to the criticisms from the business environment and from accountants regarding the provisions of GEO 70/2024 introducing the pre-completed Ro e-TVA return and stated that the measure has been taken in the interest of the Romanian state to collect the most important consumption tax from the state budget.

Marcel Boloş stated, at Digi 24: "The new measure is our main tool for reducing the VAT GAP, because we are at an unprecedented level regarding it, that is, we have 35 billion lei uncollected annually. In this context, under the monitoring of tax evasion measures by the European Commission, we must adopt measures to collect this money, this type of tax being neutral for taxpayers, not affecting their operational and operating costs. The statement that we will pre-fill has, in addition to the completed amounts, the report containing the information on where the respective amounts can be found. Those who seriously completed the e-Invoice module should not have any surprises in the e-VAT statement. All these reports related to the amounts entered in the pre-filled VAT return accompany the respective return and the respective amounts can be seen with a single click. The VAT differences and the supporting notes enter into force 3 months after the publication of the GEO in the Official Gazette, so the Ministry of Finance has enough time to see if these differences are justified and to see what measures we can take. Of course, it is not convenient now for experts in the field to carry out this activity, but we are discussing the interest of the Romanian state to collect the most important consumption tax from the state budget, from which we finance projects related to schools, hospitals and other infrastructure programs . There will be no amounts thrown into the account without any justification or without any explanation of where they come from. In the following 3 months, the differences are not sent to the taxpayers and no supporting note is requested; is the term in which the Ministry of Finance analyzes these differences, after which we will decide how to proceed further. If we find that there are differences from this mechanism that have no explanation of the nature of a material error or of the nature of insufficient information, we will decide what we will do."

However, the Organization of Women Entrepreneurs within UGIR (OFA UGIR) also drew attention yesterday, through a statement, that GEO 69 and GEO 70 approved on June 21, 2024, "without prior public consultation", will produce significant negative economic effects on the Romanian economy.

Regarding the pre-filled VAT return, the organization states that this system, although it intends to combat tax evasion, will generate additional costs and bureaucracy for companies and ANAF, without bringing concrete benefits in increasing budget receipts. According to the cited source, companies will have to allocate additional resources to comply with the new requirements and thus will increase operational costs and reduce market competitiveness. The system will double the reporting, as the necessary data is already provided by the 394 declaration, thus the bureaucracy will increase without bringing additional benefits in the fight against tax evasion.

There is also a risk that ANAF notifications will become a warning to evaders, so they will have time to cover their tracks. At the same time, it implies significant public costs for the implementation and maintenance of the system, resources that could be better used for automation and the development of efficient software solutions. supports the cited source.

That is why OFA UGIR demands the repeal of the two emergency ordinances, which impose "additional administrative tasks and generate unnecessary costs".