FinMin Teodorovici: Lump-sum taxation might be more appropriate for both businesses and tax watchdog

The lump-sum taxation might be more appropriate for both the business environment and the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF), given that 45,000 companies out of 1.2 million contribute 98 percent of the state budget revenues, Minister of Public Finance Eugen Teodorovici on Tuesday told the conference "Tax Policies for Financial Restructuring and the Support of the Business Environment." "There are currently about 1.2 million taxpayers in Romania, of which about 45,000 bring 98 percent of revenues. This means that much of what ANAF means, financial and human resources, are so to say so allocated without a logical basis. On the other hand, the companies are stifled by the ANAF checks, and then I say this: if roughly one million and one hundred companies bring somewhere around 2 percent, maybe a lump-sum taxation approach would be more appropriate for both sides - the business milieu and ANAF. This could be a fixed amount established annually by the state in a transparent manner, taking into account the respective company's turnover, and then ANAF no longer needs to conduct any check on that taxpayer," Teodorovici said. The Finance Minister said that the authorities are seeking an increase in taxation. If the lump-sum tax is applied, the 45,000 [major] taxpayers will fairly come into the attention of the tax watchdog and they will each know when they will be verified, and the minutes drawn up by ANAF will be released publicly, but without identification data, so the rest of the companies know exactly how to act within the time left until the control. Eugen Teodorovici said that returning to the progressive taxation is out of question.AGERPRES(RO - author: George Banciulea, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Maria Voican)