The Romanian Ministry of Finance published the draft Ordinance amending and supplementing the Fiscal Code, which provides, inter alia, the increase of dividend tax from 5% to 8%, lowering the threshold for micro-enterprises from EUR 1 mln to EUR 500,000 and new gambling tax rules.

The 56-page document amends the fiscal regulations for a large part of the taxpayers, and aims to bring more money to the budget (some 0.9% of GDP) by closing the loopholes used for fiscal optimisation.

Particularly, the changes aim to discourage the use of microenterprises to avoid the payment of 16% profit tax (in exchange for 1% revenue tax) or the use of the self-employment regime to avoid the payment of social security contributions.

The rather complex ordinance is the result of the negotiations between the Social Democrats, who abandoned many provisions initially included in the direction of progressive taxation, and the Liberal Party, which defended the principle of a “flat tax rate”.

The fiscal changes should, in principle, be enforced no sooner than six months after their enactment.

andrei@romania-insider.com

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