The legalisation of capital, which is one of the recent legislative initiatives by President Vladimir Voronin, is also referring to legalising the real value of the apartments and people’s savings, Info-Prim Neo reports. The legalisation will be done once a tax of 5% of the real value of the apartments or the amount of savings is paid. Minister of Economy and Commerce Igor Dodon told the meeting of the National Committee for Collective Consultations and Negotiations on Friday, April 13, that a significant part of the material and financial assets of entities and individuals are diverted to the “underground economy”. According to the estimations of different experts this share makes up 30-65% of the total economy of Moldova. For entities, this is a huge problem, because the assets of a part of them are estimated according to the bookkeeping balance at quite low value, compared with the market value. Their re-evaluation or capitalisation would lead to calculating the VAT and the tax for the increase of the capital, which would constitute impressive sums. Many individuals own apartments whose real value are not corresponding to the price registered with authorities, as well as the financial means which were not previously declared. By legalising the capital, a different approach is proposed for the legal persons and individuals, the minister says, but both categories should comply with the requirements of the reform within a year and a half after the law will come into force, period which is necessary for publicising and acknowledging the necessity of the legalisation. By January 1, 2009 both individual and legal persons will have the possibility to declare there assets, paying a legalisation tax of 5%. The legal persons will obtain the right to legalise only the production assets and stocks, not the financial means. Moldovan authorities will not allow legalising the money of the economic entities, according to the international standards on preventing and combating money laundering. According to Dodon, the legalisation of money could be risky in the case of legal persons, because they might come from outside Moldova, in this way transforming the country into a money laundering channel. During the legalisation period, legal persons will present a request to the fiscal bodies where the balance value and the value declared for legalisation shall be introduced. It will be considered that the legalisation of assets took place when the economic entities will pay a tax of 5%. In case of apartments, individuals will pay 5% of the difference between the value included in the cadastre and the real market value. The legislative initiative on the legalisation of capital means that the state offers a motivation for stopping illegal activity, by paying a lower tax, the minister says. Igor Dodon said that for example the individuals who will want to sell the apartment at its real value, of USD 40 thousand, should pay taxes worth MDL 45 thousand. According to him, if after 2009, one will want to sell the apartment for a price of USD 45 thousand, compared with USD 40 thousand at the moment he legalised the value of the apartment, then the tax will be paid from the difference of USD 5 thousand. For the future, the legislation on legalisation will be more strictly applied, and those who intend to buy apartments will want to include the real value of the transaction in official documents, the minister says.