More money for taxes

This is the third year when the Finance Ministry promises fiscal relaxation, but taxpayers will actually have to pay more money in form of taxes and duties, feeding either the central or the local budgets.
The trumpeted relaxation does not bring lower income tax quotas or deduction of expenses to compensate for the high taxes and boost wages.
The Finance Ministry says it wants to collect even more money next year by levying taxes on all types of income, but does not say a thing about a fiscal deduction system to stimulate personal investments and consumption. The workforce tax cut stopped at 52%, which accounts for a 5% relaxation. The guiding principle the Exchequer used for this relaxation and which it could continue to use is “let’s increase taxes on high wages and get more money from those who got some.”
Therefore, the ceiling of the computational basis for the social security contribution (CAS) was raised from three to five gross average monthly salaries as of January 1. Subsequently, the companies paying high wages, which amount to more than three gross average monthly salaries in the economy (some $500), would have to pay more money as social security contribution this year.
According to the new salary taxation plan, the tax for a 10 million ROL net salary reaches 7.4 million ROL. A net salary of 15 million ROL comes with a 10.5 million ROL tax for the employer, while the tax for a 25 million ROL salary amounts to 16.5 million ROL.
Until now, the social security contribution paid by the employer and by the employee (34% of the gross salary) reached $166 for a $815 gross salary (five times the gross average salary), because the percentage was calculated according to the three gross salary ceiling ($490). The social security contribution will now reach $277 (the percentage is calculated for the entire $815 salary).
Other tax increases include the double profit tax quota for exporters from 6% in 2002 to 12.5% in 2003 and limiting the deductibility of interest expenses and of the expenses caused by the negative exchange rate gaps.