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Retaining and not paying on time taxes and budget contributions is to be punished by 1 to 6 years in prison according to a legislative proposal initiated by the Minister of Finance, Social-Democrat Senator Eugen Teodorovici, and submitted to Parliament.
The draft piece of legislation deems as a felony and punishes with 1 to 6 years in prison "the retaining and non-payment, the collection and non-payment or, by case, non-retainment or non-collection, within 30 days since the due date provided by law, of the taxes and/or contributions mentioned in the annex to the state budget as provided in the annex to the law 241/2005 for the prevention and combating of the tax evasion.
Among the taxes mentioned in the annex are: "tax on dividends paid by a Romanian company to a Romanian company, tax on wages from independent activities that result from sports activities' contracts, taxes on wages from intellectual property rights, taxes on wages from salaries or assimilated to salaries, taxes on income from leases, tax on income from interests, taxes in the form of dividends, taxes on income from pensions, social security contribution, social healthcare insurance contributions, taxes on income obtained in Romania by non-residents, taxes on the income from the transfer of real estate from personal patrimony, Environment Fund contributions."
Furthermore, the draft law would establish a punishment of 2 to 7 years in prison for "establishment in bad faith by the contributor of taxes and contributions with the result of obtaining, without rights, sums of money as reimbursements or restitutions from the general consolidated budget or compensations owed to the general consolidated budget".
According to the piece of legislation, it is also tax evasion and punished with time in jail from 2 to 7 years the hiding of the goods or the source of taxes; omitting, in full, or in part, of evidence in accounting or in other legal documents, of commercial operations done or income accomplished; highlighting, in accounting or other legal documents, expenses that are not based on real operations or highlighting other fictitious operations; altering, destroying or hiding accounting documents, memories of cash registers or electronic fiscal registers or other means of storing data; double accountancy, and so forth".
The project will first be debated by the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies being the deciding chamber.
