Civil society is dissatisfied with the hurry in which the bill on the liberalization of capital and tax stimulation is promoted and suggests working out mechanisms for motivating the honest taxpayers who paid all the contributions to the state so far. Another suggestion is to separate the liberalization of capital from tax stimulation. The suggestions were formulated in public debates staged in the Parliament Building on December 14, IPN reports.
Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu said that under the bill, the capital will be liberalized on a voluntary basis and only those who want to take part will do this. “It is a right, not an obligation. The capital that can be liberalized includes financial resources and particular funds in national and foreign currencies in Moldova or abroad that are transferred at an exact time to the accounts of financial institutions in Moldova and abroad. The measure also refers to property that is underestimated and to units of transport that belong to commercial organizations and the private individuals are only co-owners,” stated the Speaker.
He explained that the capital will be liberalized by two stages. At the preliminary stage, the people will declare what they intend to liberalize and there are models of applications showing how this is done. At the second stage, the liberalization application form is compiled and the liberalization tax of 2% of the value of the undeclared property or the difference between the declared and real value of tangible or intangible assets is paid.
Andrian Candu said tax stimulation refers only to legal entities or private individuals that perform entrepreneurial activities and envisions forgiveness of a tax liability on condition that these clear the main debt to the state. “They say that this law is aimed at instituting exceptions and exempting from responsibility for the bank frauds. The law absolves no one of the committed violations,” stated the Speaker.
Economic expert Roman Chirca said that by legalizing capital, the underground economy is brought to the legal zone and the capital mass used for criminal activities will disappear. However, all the amnesties are unjust and incorrect and are instituted after economic catastrophes. The sources of capital that are to be liberalized were accumulated with the assistance of the state that was the accumulation instrument, while 70% of the banking capital comes from the obscure zone.
Valeriu Cosarciuc, chairman of the National Farmers Federation of Moldova, said the bill is not justified and the value of the capital that is to be liberalized should be first of all determined. In 2008, there was adopted a special law on the assessment of real estate for fiscal purposes. Those who pay taxes on time will be demotivated. There should be fiscal motivation as those who are disciplined are not motivated to continue to be disciplined.
“Expert-Grup” executive director Adrian Lupusor said the bill should be excluded from the agenda because it runs counter to a number of basic principles. “Amnesty is immoral and causes unwanted, in parts even perverse motivation. Discrimination is created for those who until now have complied and those who didn’t comply. At the same time, amnesty runs counter to the spirit of the fight against corruption. There is also the problem that the tax arrears will increase considerably. In 2016, these started to grow owing to the cvasi tax amnesty. Amnesty is needed not to obstruct the economy, but to motivate the business sector,” he stated.
Director of the Legal Resources Center Vlad Gribincea expressed his dissatisfaction with the hurry in which the bill registered on December 1 is promoted. This is to be debated in the December 15 sitting of Parliament already. Stimulation and liberalization should be addressed separately as they lead to confusion.
