The the recently introduced indirect methods of determining income is a reform in extremis, thinks financial expert Roger Gladei, and will be successful only if it is uniformly implemented and a number of conditions are respected. Otherwise, the reform will be noxious and will increase the population's perception that the tax service is an instrument in the “war of the Titans with the Gods”. The expert believes that fiscal public office-holders and officers should be the first to be verified according to the new rules. “It would be fair to put fiscal functionaries the first in line to be verified according to the new rules of determining income, followed by functionaries from the the customs, licensing and watchdog agencies and from other areas prone to corruption. We need a deep feasibility analysis to determine these areas, which are in fact very well-known”. Secondly, says the expert, if the government wants to x-ray its rich, it must make sure that confidentiality is strictly observed. “The people's level of confidence in the tax authorities is quite low. The first measure would be to filter the tax agents and then to offer adequate incentives to the remaining ones”, said Roger Gladei, giving the example of Georgia. From a legal point of view, the use of indirect methods to determine income involves the risk that the constitutional notions of presumption of innocence, in particular the presumption that assets are accumulated lawfully, may be violated. “This will happen if those who are responsible for implementing the reform, and namely the tax authorities, fail to correctly apply the indirect methods of estimating income. In this case, be sure that legal actions will ensue and the damages claimed will be paid, again, from the state budget, meaning from the taxpayers' pocket.” The tax service will control the taxpayers, but who controls the tax service? It's a question to which Roger Gladei couldn't find an answer in the new law. “I think it's time to introduce a price for fraudulent activities in which fiscal functionaries might engage, and introduce personal liability for violations, in order to prevent taxpayers from paying the price of a bad functionary's faults”. It depends on the correctness and efficiency of these fiscal functionaries' work if the reform achieves its goal, if the equity of imposition is restored and the state budget gets new revenues. “The rich should contribute what is expected of them and not what they think they should. This is precisely which aspect of restoring the equity of imposition, the moral and legal aspect, should be at the core of the message promoted in the new reform”, stated Roger Gladei. Effective from September 14, the indirect methods of determining income will apply to individuals who aren't engaged in entrepreneurial activity and who obtain during one fiscal year assets and funds totaling 1 million lei or more, excepting individuals who started building a house before 1 January 2012, and also to persons whose annual expenses exceed 500,000 lei.