Romania slightly improves ranking on ease of paying taxes

Newsroom 21/11/2013 | 11:12

Romanian taxpayers have to spend around 200 hours yearly to comply with the tax legislation, underlining one of the core issues faced by companies doing business in Romania.

The country has moved up two places in The Paying Taxes 2014 ranking to 134 out of 189 assessed economies. The report was drawn up by the professional services firm PwC and the World Bank. It takes into account the total tax rate, the time to comply and the number of payments a company needs to undertake yearly.

Romania came third in the CEE on ease of paying taxes, after Estonia and Lithuania and ahead of Slovakia (207 hours), Hungary (277 hours) or Bulgaria (454 hours).

“Yet Romania’s position is hindered by the underdevelopment of the online tax payment possibilities, which is still making Romania the country in Central and Eastern Europe with the highest number of tax payments per year – 39,” stated Mihaela Mitroi, tax and legal services leader at PwC Romania.

“Even if this indicator improved in recent years, without a further reduction in the number of payments there won’t be substantial progress in the Paying Taxes ranking”, she added.

A recent PwC Romania survey showed that the financial managers of Romanian agency would like the tax collection agency ANAF to focus on improving electronic filing and online payments.

The ANAF is undergoing a major overhaul through to 2017, which Mitroi says should increase tax collection, narrow tax evasion and increase the tax compliance rate.