Small entrepreneurs who work based on patent and a number of mayors expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that the economic activity based on patent wil be liquidated from 2017. The bill that will regulate the activity of traders staring with January 1, 2017 was discussed in debates staged by the Small Business Association and the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova, IPN reports.
Small Business Association chairman Eugen Roscovanu said that under the initial draft law, the small entrepreneurs starting with 2017 must keep fiscal and financial records and have cash register. They will also have to pay 1% of the taxation object, but it is not yet clear what this will be – the sales or the profit. In the first case, the tax will be catastrophically high, while in the second case it will be acceptable.
According to Eugen Roscovanu, the government should take into account the provisions of the Association Agreement with the EU, which provides that the legislative initiatives must be in favor of SMEs.
Eleonora Turcanu, patent holder from Causeni town, said that only about 10% of those who work based on patent have sales of 300,000 lei a year. The others can hardly pass the figure of 100,000 lei. Those who drafted the bill considered the situation in Chisinau only. When the patent is eliminated, only 1-2% of the current patent holders will manage to start individual companies. The others will remain without a source of income as they do not have elementary knowledge to start a business in the new conditions.
Alexei Busuioc, mayor of Capaclia, Cantemir, said the activity of patent holders brings revenues to the local budget. Under the new provisions, the traders will pay taxes only in the settlement where they are registered, even if they work in several settlements. He noted he will never accept a trader to pay taxes in the community where this is registered, but to work in another community and cause waste, profiting from roads, etc.
Executive director of the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova Viorel Furdui said the inspection bodies will have to step up efforts to identify those who work illegally based on patent and those who work in the underground economy, but the honest entrepreneurs should not be penalized instead of those who break the law.
According to the Small Business Association, the SMEs represent over 97% of all the companies. Over 18,000 entrepreneurs work based on patent.
