Reporting The two apartments in Bucharest where 3,000 companies with huge debts are registered / who answered the door / “E ANAF”

The Court of Accounts recently announced that it has discovered a risk of tax evasion against which ANAF NA took almost no measure: hundreds and thousands of companies with state debts have social registers at the same address. An example is a block of housing in Sector 2 in Bucharest, on Architect Grigore Ionescu street. HotNews.ro went to the scene.

2,736 companies in an apartment, over 200 companies in another apartment

Architect Grigore Ionescu street is placed in the east of Bucharest, in the Tei neighborhood. Here are two apartments invoked in the report of the Court of Accounts.

“In Sector 2 in Bucharest, in a single apartment in an building on Arhitect Grigore Ionescu street, 2,736 companies operated, with a total balance of debts of 124,773,065 lei (on 31.12.2023). At the same address, but at another apartment, there is also an impressive number of over 200 companies,” the court is shown.

The debt to the state, invoked by the Court of Accounts, is almost 25 million euros.

The document of the Court of Accounts was published last week, in full political discussions regarding the measures to reduce the budget deficit. It is an audit report of over 500 pages on the activity of ANAF in 2023, in which the Court of Accounts warns about the problems in the collection of VAT and the lack of measures against situations with a risk of tax evasion.

Romania loses billions of euros annually, with the largest VAT collection deficit in the EU, a situation that persists for many years.

Based on the data received from the General Directorate of Fiscal Antifraud (DGAF), from the National Center for Financial Information and the Trade Register, the team of public auditors of the Court “identified a large number of addresses on the territory of Romania to which the social headquarters belonging to hundreds and thousands of companies (at the same address) are registered, most of them”.

Court Critics to ANAF

According to the Court, such situations allow practices by which “companies with large budget debts are transferred to other shareholders and administrators than those who have benefited from non -payment of taxes and taxes for the clear purpose of” burying “those companies with large debts to the state budget, lacking efficiency the recovery measures of the tax authorities”.

“Although the fiscal control bodies carried out various checks in some of these addresses in 2023, the fiscal risks related to the circumstance of the activity in a very large number of companies were not used or analyzed, the checks are completed for the most part without any finding and without the inspection,” report.

The woman and the cat

To reach the block whose address was published by the Court of Accounts, go by bus 182 to the “Mother Lord” station, in the Tei area of ​​Bucharest. From the Mother Lord station, the road is near the “Saint Trinity” street.

The block has 8 floors. I called one of the apartments where I heard noises. An old woman replied among the legs of a cat. The old woman confirmed that some social headquarters of some companies were temporarily registered. But this almost 10 years ago, a situation that is no longer current, claims the woman.

Lawyer: Without the option of establishing the registered office at a law firm would support work in black

The neighboring apartment, where the Court of Accounts says it would work over 2,700 companies, has no number. But under the ringer is a plaque that writes “Lawyer” and a mobile number is passed. We have anonymized the number, as we do not provide the numbers of the apartments, even if they appear in the account of the Court of Accounts. No one answered the ringer. But on the phone, yes.

Frightened that she will wake up at the door with all kinds of people after the Court of Accounts published the Cabinet address, the lawyer has agreed to discuss the activity of the company, without furulating her first name.

The lawyer says that, indeed, she registers and holds the correspondence of thousands of companies, 15, “under the conditions provided by law for any lawyer”.

“Without the option of establishing the registered office at a law firm would mean supporting black work as there are many people who do not have personal properties to establish their registered office and so they could not open companies to work legally and pay the related taxes,” said the lawyer representing companies.

“There is no valid headquarters there.”

The lawyer invokes Law no. 51/1995 regarding the organization and exercise of the profession of lawyer, “the one that allows the establishment of the registered office at the lawyer's headquarters through a legal assistance contract”. The registered office established at the lawyer's headquarters cannot be used to carry out commercial activities, but only to receive correspondence, she adds.

The solution is useful, says the interlocutor, for companies that have difficulty finding a space for the registered office. Apart from lawyers, there are many companies that offer social officers.

Several years ago, says the lawyer, had the cabinet set on the same scale, at where the old woman lives. However, the companies with expired headquarters remained hanging.

“About 8 years ago I had the cabinet there, then I closed it. There is no valid headquarters (all expired) for years. Certain companies have been hanging because I do not have the power to change their headquarters, only associations,” says the lawyer.

“90% are companies in a fiscal rule. Here is the fault of ANAF”

The lawyer does not dispute that he would have many companies registered, but he claims that only a part have debts to the state and the blame for the poor collection belongs to the ANAF.

“From 2,736 companies, 90% are companies in a fiscal point of view. The debts are made by several companies, for which I also made a referral as they have the headquarters to my address and which have worked with debts for years. Here is the fault of the ANAF that it did not declare it inactive since the debts were smaller. The activity of me would mean a lot of money in the minus to the budget, ”says the woman.

“Before seeing what amounts are,” the lawyer says that “you should see what amounts they get from the taxes from the other companies that are based in me.”

“The companies that want to evasion can make their headquarters and elsewhere, they must not necessarily take from a law firm. So I am not to blame or the legislation that allows more offices for correspondence to the same address. In conclusion, ANAF must act from the beginning, do not wait for a thousand euros,”