The corporate tax paid by commercial banks have varied after the onset of the economic crisis to RON200 million – RON500 million, after having peaked at RON1.2 billion in 2009. The corporate tax paid in 2017 was the third highest in the past decade, after the RON701 million of 2008 and RON1,227 million of 2009.
After having been subject to new legislation by the Parliament in 2016, which led to two controversial laws – the debt discharge law for mortgage loans and the law of conversion of Swiss franc loans at the historic exchange rate, in 2017 it was the Government’s turn to attack the lenders.
The fiscal optimization, connected to the process of unloading non-performing loans and the loses posted by some banks in the years after the onset of the crisis, became a reason for a conflict between the Finance Ministry/Government and banks. The attack on banks came from the Prime Minister Mihai Tudose and the Finance Minister Ionut Misa themselves, and the tax authority ANAF started audits at the lenders. At the same time, more restrictive rules about deducting expenses related to receivables unloaded were introduced.
The banking sector, which finances 90% of Romania’s economy posted about RON4.1 billion net profit in January-September last year, according to the latest data from Romania’s central bank. It posted RON4.15 billion net profit in the entire 2016 and RON4.5 billion in the entire 2015.
The Finance Ministry expects lenders to pay RON744 million corporate tax in 2018, and even more in 2019-2021. Last year’s corporate tax, RON641 million, was 1.8 times higher than budgeted by the Finance Ministry, RON357 million, and double the 2016 level, RON306.4 million. (EUR1=RON4.6377)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)