Nearly half of the entrepreneurs (45%) consider that certain measures on tax cuts and tax incentives would support short-term business development, jointly with reduced bureaucracy and simplified laws and Tax Code (15%), public-private collaboration (7%), state-guaranteed loans (8%), the stability of the fiscal environment (5%) and the improvement of the entrepreneurial/professional education level, according to EY’s study Entrepreneurs speak out – Romanian Entrepreneurship Barometer 2015 “.
Two thirds of the entrepreneurs (65%) say that the fiscal measures adopted by the government would support their business growth, while around 10% support the setup of a government agency to assist startups in meeting fiscal requirements.
Entrepreneurs said they are discontent with access to financing, which is considered difficult or very difficult by 82% of the respondents (compared to 88% last year).
Government can support entrepreneurs’ access to financing by granting tax incentives for investments in small companies (26%), loan guarantees (20%), low taxes on capital gains (18%) or funds for financing schemes (13%).
Entrepreneurs say that the recently adopted business angels’ law could represent a solution for some of their problems. According to business angels law, an individual investor can fund a startup with minimum EUR3,000 and maximum EUR200,000, in exchange for maximum 49% of its capital. The investor will be exempted from the tax on dividends income for a five-year period.
According to EY study, business incubators and accelerators will provide the main support for entrepreneurial development (23% of the respondents), followed by governmental programs for startups and entrepreneurs (19%), specific training programs for industries (12%) and mentoring programs (12%).
For the third edition of the study, the analysis of the entrepreneurship environment in Romania was based on five enablers: access to funding, tax and regulation, education and training, entrepreneurship culture and coordinated support. The study was based on the answers of 370 Romanian entrepreneurs and was conducted between January 9 – February 24.