The large taxpayer unit within Romania’s tax agency ANAF is wasting resources on activities that bring little money to the state budget, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The unit fails to meet its objective of reducing the gap between the taxes owed and the tax collected.

“Control resources wasted on unproductive inspections are enormous,” reads the IMF report.

Some 46% of the unit’s annual control resources are used for VAT reimbursements. However, the tax authorities record significant results only in 10% of the inspections. In advanced tax administrations, the control of VAT reimbursements represents a very small percentage of the large taxpayer unit’s resources, namely less than 5%, according to IMF.

The time spent on each inspection is also very high compared to international standards. In Romania, a control for VAT reimbursement at a large taxpayer takes half a year whereas such inspections take less than a day in advanced tax administrations.

editor@romania-insider.com