While the tax amnesty may have certain short-term benefits in the case of tax collection, in the medium and long term, it discourages voluntary compliance and brings uncertainties for good-faith taxpayers and, implicitly, could negatively affect the degree of revenue collection to the state budget, according to the Foreign Investors Council (FIC) commenting on the latest bill endorsed by the government in the fiscal sector.

The similar steps taken in recent years were neither preceded nor followed by a clear assessment, no studies were published on the budgetary impact at the time, nor reports about the past effects of this type of measure on the process of collecting budgetary debts were presented, FIC argues.

The adoption of the emergency ordinance introducing a new tax amnesty did not provide the necessary time for a thorough analysis and for preparing position papers on behalf of the business environment, FIC says.

FIC reiterates the need to set applicable medium- and long-term principles and guidelines that ensure coherence in the field of fiscal policies, encourage voluntary compliance, and support the diligent and transparent conduct of taxpayers who pay their obligations to the state budget.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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