Fiscal authorities go after real estate barons

The National Fiscal Administration Agency (ANAF) has started nationwide controls for over 7,000 individuals who, in the 2006 – 2008 period conducted real estate commercial operations, in order to find out who did business without paying VAT. “We are checking individuals who, although they became involved in consistent commercial activities in the real estate sector, selling a large number of new buildings and land that can be used for constructions, did not register as VAT payers,” said Sorin Blejnar, president of ANAF. The total value of real estate transactions that will be looked into is of around 15 billion RON (about 3.5 billion euros), with individuals who concluded more than five transactions being the main targets. Blejnar said 7,145 individuals were selected for checks, for 85,442 real estate transactions worth 14.9 billion RON. The state is entitled to charge a 19% VAT, which would amount to almost 2.5 billion RON (700 million euros) in the case of these transactions. Over the last few years, a lot of developers did business as individuals in order to avoid VAT payment. According to the Fiscal Code, any individual who carries out commercial transactions worth over 35,000 euros is required to register as a VAT payer.