Some 95% of the former patent holders switched over to independent activity or another form of activity, such as LTD (Limited Liability Company) or IE (Individual Enterprise), Minister of Economic Development and Digitization Dumitru Alaiba told a news conference, being quoted by IPN.
Out of the 4,200 retail traders working in markets, over 3,500 switched over to independent activity. The rest founded LTDs or IEs. 3,445 persons asked to be covered the transition costs and 3,183 of them already recieved the money. For this effort, the state allocated over 20 million lei.
Dumitru Alaiba said that those who practice independent activity don’t need to have tally sheets and to keep accounting records. They also don’t need to submit reports. The cash register is connected directly to the State Tax Service and once in three months the traders will get a receipt with the calculated 1% sales tax, which is the smallest income tax in Europe. The highest value of sales should not exceed 1.2 million a year, four times more compared with the ceiling for former patentees. He called on the citizens to ask for a sales slip when they purchase something or use particular services.
The head of the State Tax Service Petru Rotaru told the same news conference that the past two months the Service has been involved in a broad program of voluntary compliance applying to persons who worked based on patent and could switch over to independent activity. He approved of the result of the work done by his mates as most of the traders started to practice independent activity despite the initial opposition put up by patentees.
Any former patentee who switched over to independent activity could ask to have costs of up to 10,000 lei compensated by the middle of September. Before and after the coming into force of the new fiscal rules, on July 1, the patent holders protested against the annulment of patent in trade. They said that they are obliged to use a cash register in independent activity and such a device is not cheap and it cannot be used safely in markets, at stalls. They also argued that the patentees, many of whom are of retirement age, do not have the skills needed to operate a cash register and any mistake can cost them a lot.
As many as 4,800 holders of patents that allowed them to retail were registered with the State Tax Service on December 31, 2022.
