Old income tax law hangs on

Taxpayers’ 2000 incomes will be taxed according to the old provisions in Ordinance 73/1999 on income tax. The Finance Ministry’s announcement admits Parliament’s impossibility to pass the draft including the modifications made by Nastase Cabinet to the initial text by May 31, the deadline for submitting tax returns.

The Government has previously given up promoting the new provisions by an emergency ordinance. Minister Mihai Tanasescu claimed that the draft law could be debated by Parliament in an emergency procedure, so that the new law would even have enforcement norms approved by May 31, as well.

State secretary Gheorghe Oana, though, admits that the new draft law on income tax, currently debated in Parliament, “stands little chance” of being enacted by May 31, the deadline for submitting tax returns for 2000, so that it could be retroactively enforced. “2000 incomes will be taxed pursuant to the law in 1999. The improvements we made, that is increasing the non-taxable ceiling for pensions, the main deduction for employees, as well as increasing the deductible expenses for rent-related incomes will not be applied for 2000 incomes,” Oana confirmed.