Deloitte Survey: Perception of the Romanian business environment on the evolution of tax system in 2017

On the occasion of the annual conference Taxnology, Deloitte Romania conducted a survey among the participants representing of some of the largest investors in Romania, to find out the perception of the business environment regarding the evolution of taxation in 2017. 

The set of questions was similar to the one used in the 2015, thus providing the opportunity to make a comparison of the current answers with those provided two years ago.

"We see that in 2017 the percentage of those who consider that the tax system had a positive evolution has halved. At the same time, we note that the percentage of those who believe that the legal changes lead to fiscal relaxation or fiscal predictability has diminished. In Deloitte’s opinion, the deterioration in the perception of the business environment is not necessarily determined by legal changes or tax increases, but by the way in which discussions about tax policies have taken place lately. We are concerned about the increase of mistrust, as it will ultimately affect the business decisions regarding opening new businesses, expanding or hiring and implicitly affecting the Romanian economic growth that brings wealth for companies and their employees, therefore for the country as a whole,” said Dan Badin, Partner-in-Charge Tax and Legal Services Deloitte Romania.

Key findings of the survey regarding the evolution of the Romanian tax system in recent years

• in 2017, 15% of the interviewees said that the tax system had a positive evolution with major changes compared to 32% in 2015
• 22% of them believe that in 2017 the tax system had a positive evolution with minor changes compared to 43% in 2015
• 52% believe that the evolution of the tax system was negative this year compared to 22% in 2015

About the impact of the legal changes on their business

• 46% say that the legal changes have a major impact in 2017 with negative effects on their business versus 30% two years ago
• 19% consider in 2017 that the legal changes have a major impact with positive influences on their business compared to 30% two years ago

About the way in which the objectives of the legal changes have been achieved

• 62% believe in 2017 that the legal changes have simplified the tax calculation and tax compliance compared to 23% in 2015
• 2% say that the legal changes have led to fiscal relaxation in 2017 compared to 28% in 2015
• 3% believe that the legal changes have reached the objective of predictability of the fiscal system in 2017 compared to 13% in 2015