Introduction of the 16% single rate for income tax, one of the main moves of the new government since coming to power, was "felt" by employees for the first time earlier this month when they received their salaries for January. Those who benefited the most were the employees of multinational companies that negotiated gross salaries.
"The introduction of the single tax rate was felt strongly, with net salaries in January substantially higher," said Irina Ionescu, marketing manager of Coca-Cola Romania, which handles the marketing of Coca-Cola products on the Romanian market and coordinates activities in the Balkans.
She gave no details as to the value of increase. Coca-Cola, as with most multinationals, negotiates gross salaries in ROL with its employees.
"Our employee salaries have increased by 10% on average. We negotiate gross salaries so our employees were able to benefit from this with no problems. I believe this fiscal relaxation will have a beneficial effect on the economy. It is important for employees, as well as companies, to have more money to invest," explained Tudor Moldovan, deputy general manager at Generali, one of the top ten insurance companies in Romania.
Despite the salary rises following the fiscal relaxation, says Moldovan, the indexation already scheduled for the middle of this year will stay as it is. "This was put into the budget as early as last year, since our company draws up its budget for the coming year in August-September of the previous year," he said.
Human resources specialists believe that many companies will use these large salary rises resulting from the lowering of taxes as a pretext for not proceeding with other rises or indexation of salaries in the current year.
The introduction of the single tax rate was one of the first measures endorsed by the Tariceanu government and was enacted through a government ordinance.
The new move is intended to replace the global taxation of employee income, which used progressive tax bands ranging from 18% to 40%, with a system that applies the rate of 16% to most income categories. Not all employees have gained, however: only those who negotiated gross salaries in ROL will benefit under the new system.
"We have no precise statistics as to how many companies have negotiated net salaries and how many gross," said Cristian Parvulescu, executive manager of the Association of Romanian Businessmen (AOAR). georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro ; ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
