New Tax Service chief promises to fight carousel fraud

The top priority in the activity of Nicolae Vicol, the new Main State Tax Inspectorate head, since his appointment on Monday, has become the improvement of fiscal administration, reports Info-Prim Neo. As he had mentioned, improvement will be obtained through the improvement of the MSTI, combat against multinational fraud and “carousel fraud”, in other words, against that type of fiscal evasion that involves ghost-firms, the activity of which, in his opinion, is a crime against our nation. “The one-stop shop practice will be actively used in issuing paperwork for businesses, including for entrepreneur licenses; also, contributors’ payments will go through this mechanism”, specified Vicol. He said that there will be stimuli for contributors from the business sector, who decide to give themselves in, pay taxes for their period of activity in the underground economy, and transfer to the legal economic field. The activity of firms, which have been declared insolvable but have not yet been liquidated and continue their activity without paying taxes, will be closely monitored. Greater attention will be given to the information of contributors, so that every citizen understands that timely and complete tax payments are a duty. Contacted to comment on the priorities announced, Sofia Suleanschi, expert in entrepreneurial policies, said that the businesses have heard about the aforementioned on other occasion, and that they are not new. In her opinion, it will be very good when the businesses’ time to make payments, present reports and receive their license, will be diminished. “As for the combat against ghost-firms, it is more talk than action, and for the businesses to give their black market deals in, pay taxes, and then activate legally, seems as a silly idea, especially since we had fiscal amnesty, for declaring assets, money, realty, and we all know that it did not yield the expected results”, she said. “It would be better if order was made within the inspections, the attitude of the fiscal institution towards businesses changed, so that inspectors don’t see a potential violator in every entrepreneur, and it would improve the business climate and impulse the entire economic activity”, added Suleanschi. Nicolae Vicol was appointed head of the Main State Tax Inspectorate after Nicolae Platon’s dismissal, the latter having held this position since 2009.