"Why should I not sleep at night? Why should I start a business? Why should I create jobs? Why should we still believe we can do something for Romania?". This is how entrepreneurs commented on the government's initiative to introduce the lump-sum tax on ZF website.

Deceived for several months that the Government will not raise "the flat tax, or the VAT", small entrepreneurs, as well as major distribution firms or firms having investments underway state the new taxes that are likely to be introduced through an emergency ordinance can put them out of business.

The government discussed an emergency ordinance draft through which firms in 20 fields of activity, including tourism, restaurants, transport, trade, will have to pay a tax of at least 6,500 RON per year and of at least 0.5% in turnover. The agreement signed with the IMF and the ongoing decline in budgetary revenues are forcing the Finance Ministry to introduce new taxes and eliminate some incentives in order to get more money for the budget.

While the Finance Ministry says its plan is to clamp down on fiscal evasion, the moment chosen to tighten taxation and tax loss-making firms is not the right one, according to analysts.

Moreover, no difference is being made between honest-minded investors and shell companies. The reason behind the introduction of this minimum tax is to have a certain predictability factor for budgetary revenues, considering that, according to the IMF agreement, the budgetary deficit is to be monitored on a quarterly basis and in the case of some revenue drops some corrective measures will have to be applied anyway. The lump-sum tax practically means the taxation of a business depending on its size, that is turnover, and not on the income generated on paper, which is often "doctored".

"Why should I not sleep at night? Why should I start a business? Why should I c