After a confusing week for holders of intellectual property rights and registered individuals in Romania, who were supposed to apply and pay their social contributions on a very short notice and without many details about the process, only 10 percent of them actually went to submit the required documents. The deadline to do so was yesterday, when people queued at the pension houses and at the workforce agencies to submit and pay their respective dues.

State representatives were unable to give a clear message on whether the tax payers would have to queue every month to submit these documents and make the payments. After the deadline passed, the Labor Minister said no penalties will be applied to those who missed the deadline. Staring September, those who hold intellectual property rights contracts and registered individuals will be able to submit documents and pay their social contributions online, according to the ministry.

Meanwhile, the local media started a petition asking people to go on a fiscal strike, reacting to the lack of organization by the state. Most of Romanian journalists are being paid on intellectual property rights contracts, aside from their main work contract.

Trying to get more money to the state budget, the Romanian authorities have imposed social securities taxes on intellectual property rights contracts, forcing some of the holders to pay these taxes twice, as they also pay such taxes for their work contract.

Local media pointed out the fact that the Government is trying to weaken local media by enforcing such new rules, at a time when the Romanian media is already affected by the drop on the advertising market, which had led to many redundancies in the sector.