Tax authority: Romania no longer among EU states to experience tax gap widening

Romania is no longer among the countries that experience the widening of the tax gap, said the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF), referring to the European Commission's recent VAT Gap report.

For Romania, the figures show that the fiscal gap remained approximately steady at 35.8 percent in 2016 and 35.5 percent in 2017 (the numbers are rounded off to 36 percent for both years). Some member states have seen a tax gap growth compared to 2016: Greece - by 2.6 percentage points, Latvia - by 1.9 percent, and Germany - by 0.2 percent, but Romania is no longer among the countries with a widening tax gap, ANAF said in a release.

"It is for the first time in 5 years of analysis of the VAT gap when Romania is no longer among the EU member states with the largest tax gap increase among the 28 member states of the European Union," ANAF representatives show.

"One of ANAF's priority concerns is the reduction of the VAT gap, with the measures enforced with a view to achieving this goal included in the Plan of Measures for Improving the Collection of Revenues to the General Consolidated Budget, developed in June this year and published on the agency's website," mention the representatives of the tax authority.

According to the cited source, in the first eight months of 2019, VAT revenues are 11.6 percent higher compared to 2018, and VAT refunds to taxpayers increased by 8.7 percent