In Romania, in addition to death and taxes, there is also a third certainty: that taxation changes several times a year, says a respected tax consultant

Romania has one of the most unstable fiscal policies in the European Union. Dozens of changes to the Fiscal Code can be made in a single year, without a clear strategy, without an impact assessment and often without coherent application rules.

This is the image that Dan Bădin, Deloitte partner, one of the most respected tax consultants in Romania, vividly describes, who drew attention on Tuesday at a specialized conference organized by cursdeguvernare.ro that “the frequency of tax changes does not mean reform”.

Change without direction

Romania lives, Bădin says, in a permanent fiscal temporary state. Instead of a long-term strategy, we have momentary reactions: taxes introduced and withdrawn, ordinances passed overnight, unpublished rules.

“We don't know where we want to go. We don't know what to focus on and what steps to take today to make tomorrow better.”

This lack of vision directly affects the business environment: investment plans become risky, compliance costs rise, and trust declines. In fact, Romania now has one of the highest levels of budget deficit in the EU, and the fiscal pressure is compensated by new taxes and increasingly complex reporting.

“Reporting requirements and taxpayers' costs for tax reporting have increased dramatically. The costs to implement technological solutions have cost taxpayers a lot and continue to cost them to maintain and report. We see that there are extremely many things that are on the agenda of any taxpayer in Romania.

It is obvious that in addition to the fact that we have many changes, they are not always clear. We need rules that are not given, we ask for clarification from the authorities and sometimes they don't come or if they do, they don't provide any clarification. There is no unitary approach in interpretation”, says Bădin

Badin also spoke openly about administrative incoherence.

“ANAF says one thing, the courts another, and tax consultants have a third opinion”

This lack of unity in the interpretation of the law creates uncertainty and leads to abuse. The tax authorities ask for additional reports, but do not provide clarifications or coherent answers, and taxpayers often have surprises only at the audit.

We need clarity in how tax legislation is applied and this, unfortunately, does not exist. We have the area of ​​”fiscal innovation”, with taxes that have been introduced in very few countries in the world or in none, such as IMCA (minimum turnover tax). They affect the investment appetite, come with additional costs and tax not only profits, but in some places even losses. And then why would investors come here to us, in Romania?”, asks the consultant.

Collection is, in his opinion, another big problem. “Correct tax payers ask themselves: if I pay my taxes correctly, why do you keep raising my taxes instead of going to collect from the large area of ​​the gray economy? Does ANAF know in which areas the evasion takes place? If so, why don't they fight against those areas?”, says Badin

Moreover, digitization, which was supposed to simplify, has become an additional burden. Taxpayers have invested millions in IT systems, but they are reporting more and with greater difficulty.

Genuine tax reform would mean clarity and respect

For business, real reform is not just higher or lower taxes, but clarity, predictability and fairness.

“In other countries, a tax change is discussed 2-3 years in advance and implemented after a year of preparation. In our country, it appears on December 31 and takes effect on January 1.”

Taxpayers do not demand privileges, but respect and partnership treatment. As long as the state treats them as suspected evaders and not as economic partners, voluntary compliance will continue to decline.

“Unfortunately, what we see in reality is that this whole campaign for digitization that has been done in recent years has meant, in fact, a lot of investment from the taxpayers, both from the perspective of information systems, from the perspective of the actual work to implement those systems, and unfortunately, after these investments, we don't see many results, we don't see that we report less, on the contrary, we report more, we don't report easier. So, instead of bringing some benefits to this digitization, it seems that things went in the direction opposite. We have more reporting and we have more things and we have higher compliance costs,” says the Deloitte partner.

Badin also said on Tuesday that digitization must simplify, not complicate, things. “The reforms that have been made so far do not bring much confidence, because it seems to be a one-sided effort. The effort comes only from the taxpayer who has to pay more taxes. We do not see better public services. It seems that the system favors some over others, and this leads to a decrease in voluntary compliance and fiscal solidarity. People no longer have the desire, the interest to pay their taxes correctly,” he explains.

A genuine reform would mean clarity, simple, clear rules, with a unitary approach in application, concludes the fiscal consultant.