Realitatea Media receives a reprieve on its tax arrears

In just three months, Realitatea Media, the company that manages Realitatea TV, went from being in foreclosure, to receiving a respite on all of its tax arrears to the state.

And this, after the National Tax Administration (ANAF) spent almost seven months investigating the financial records of Realitatea Media and of other companies controlled by businessman Sorin Ovidiu Vîntu.

As of September 30, 2010, Realitatea Media is included in the list of major taxpayers with arrears to the state budget, with an amount of 935,000 lei, of which more than half comes from the non-payment of wage taxes. In addition, the company 2.728 million lei to the social security budget, 1 million lei to the healthcare budget and 104,000 lei in unemployment contributions.

Realitatea Media has received facilities for the payment of all of the arrears mentioned above.

Sorin Blejnar, the president of the ANAF (Romanian Tax Agency), said that he personally has no knowledge of the tax arrears facilities received by Realitatea Media, but expressed his conviction that if they are real, they were awarded legally: "It is not the ANAF, but rather the Major Taxpayers Department that decides on awarding facilities for the payment of tax arrears".

The facilities were probably awarded on the grounds of Emergency Government Ordinance 92/2009, but I repeat, I was not aware of them. I am convinced that both the investigation of the ANAF and the reprieves were granted in compliance with the law. The payment facility actually means the postponement of the payment of the arrears, such an action is unrelated to the investigation made by the ANAF".

Monica Negrutzi, the deputy general manager of the Department for the Administration of Major Taxpayers, said for "BURSA", that the facilities were indeed granted based on the Emergency Government Ordinance 92/2009: "The company met the requirements of the provisions of the Ordinance and received a respite until December 20th, 2010".

At the end of last week, the Ministry of Public Finance published the list of the major taxpayers which had tax arrears at the end of September 30th, 2010, which revealed that the number of tax arrears facilities decreased compared to June 30th, 2010, whereas the number of foreclosures increased.

According to the quoted source, the number of companies that received facilities for the payment of their tax arrears dropped from 47 in Q3 2010 to 18 in Q2 2010. Also, during the quoted interval, the number of foreclosures increased from 270 on June 30th, to 275 on September 30th.