Companies lost in fiscal regulations labyrinth

Romania displays an unusually high number of fiscal regulations. Paradoxically, this fact is also admitted by the Finance Ministry.

The problem is that almost every fiscal normative document that influences the commercial and financial operations conducted by a company can be subject to various interpretations.

As the Finance Ministry does not provide a clear and unitary interpretation, the same stipulation can acquire various meanings among companies and, even among the fiscal bodies subordinated to the Finance Ministry.

“It all comes down to sheer luck. It depends on which control body comes and which interpretation it chooses,” one company representative told the “Fiscal seminar” organised in Sibiu by publishing and counseling group Rentrop&Straton.

“Since legislation is fuzzy, we may very well come up with a certain interpretation, in good faith, but this may not match the interpretation given by fiscal bodies representatives. On the other hand, if we request clarifications from the Finance Ministry, the answers arrive with great difficulty and they often leave room for interpretation,” says the economic manager of another company.

Companies also claim that the interpretation of certain norms is different at every fiscal office. This opinion is shared by counseling companies in this field, which are asking the Finance Ministry for unitary application solutions regarding the various normative documents.

“We also find it very hard to interpret certain regulations. The establishment of tax levels can sometimes turn into a genuine economic-financial engineering,” said Mariana Mironescu, a consultant with Rentrop&Straton.

The biggest problems encountered when calculating taxes mainly stem from the deductibility issue, namely the non-deductibility of certain expenses.

The much-awaited clarification should come from the emergency ordinance draft on profit tax, which the Finance Ministry is trying to finalise during the first part of this week.

The normative document will comprise a complete list of all expenses accepted as deductible, in order to eliminate the confusion created by the numerous regulations in effect.

To avoid all potential traps, many accountants are expecting the Finance Ministry to issue balance-closing norms for 2001, especially since many stipulations came into effect this year and it is not clear to what extent they can affect previous calculations.

In the attempt to cast more light on fiscal legislation, the Finance Ministry decided to reinstate the Central Fiscal Commission.

“The Commission is empowered to analyse and solve certain situations which are not clearly regulated by the norms and orders issued by the Ministry,” said Mihai Hura, deputy general manager of the Fiscal Policy Department within the Finance Ministry.