The main tendencies in the Moldovan legislation and the challenges faced by Moldovan companies in the fiscal, customs and labor areas were discussed in a conference organized by KPMG in Moldova together with Vernon David on February 2. Experts in fiscal administration and legal matters of the two companies and representatives of the Ministry of Finance told the about 200 entrepreneurs who took part in the event about the main fiscal novelties and answered businessmen’s questions, IPN reports.
Attending the event, Minister of Finance Octavian Armasu said the fiscal policy for 2017 envisions a series of novelties. One of them is the Anticipated Individualized Fiscal Solution, which is a document issued by the fiscal authorities to enable a private individual or legal entity that carries out entrepreneurial activities to regulate specific fiscal situations. This is an additional instrument, besides letters received by the State Tax Service and the Ministry of Finance, which is aimed at increasing transparency in implementing the fiscal legislation and improving the investment climate in Moldova.
Among other novelties this year, the minister mentioned the taxation in the ICT sector, the changes related to the income tax paid by private individuals, annulment of excises on particular goods and increase in excises on oil, tobacco and alcoholic products, and the new rules concerning the ecological tax. An objective for 2018 is to harmonize the standards on VAT and excises to the European ones.
KPMG Moldova manager Oana Motoi said that from consultative perspective, the legislative changes referring to direct taxes for 2016-2017 are very good, also because the business entities have a clear view. These are yet to be implemented appropriately. As regards the Anticipated Individualized Fiscal Solution, the authorities are to grant such a request within 90 days. However, if there is not enough information, the 90 days start to be counted when all the required information is furnished to the authorities. In other states, there were cases when an answer came during a year. It is recommended adopting methodological norms on the type of information that should be attached to the letter.
Diana Neagu, partner and coordinating lawyer of Vernon David, spoke about the lack of transparency in the inspections carried out by labor authorities. For example, today we can speak about the absence of a clear list of documents that the employer needs to present to an authority in case of an inspection. A year ago, the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family published a guide that includes the documents that an employer must provide to inspectors. When businessmen said this is not clear enough, the authorities extended the list, trebling practically the number of documents. This way the relations between the employer, employee and labor authority were made more difficult. There are useless obligations and improvements are needed in this regard.
