Romanian financial control authorities are inhibitting the entrepreneurial spirit of young people
The Young Employers Association from the South – East Region of Romania (YEAR – SE) is a nonprofit organization of young entrepreneurs who are conducting their already-set businesses in Romania or who want to establish new businesses. We are conducting our activity based on principles such as business ethics, sustained investment, high quality of products and services, sustainable development, and creating better communities. We are dedicating time and effort encouraging young people to become entrepreneurs and not just good employees.
We are highly concerned that Romania is still facing administrative, fiscal and economic instability. Young entrepreneurs are facing even greater problems like difficulties to establish a company, high taxes, high VAT level, enourmous bureaucracy, and often, intimidations from the representatives of financial control authorities. Our country is hardly generating success stories of start-up businesses, but stories of abuse from public institutions that are ultimatelly financed by the economic environment, reminding us of the Communist era. Recently, a member of ours who established „Actiunea” Newspaper in October last year, has received an audit from the Financial Guard. This unusually fast control for a start-up ended up with no fine, as the company paid all the taxes to the state budget. However, representatives of the control institution considered that the newspapers that were not sold but given for free as a marketing strategy, should be considered sold, resulting in unjustified penalties which are well over the possibilities of the company. Moreover, the Financial Guard did not know to offer the company an alternative accounting solution to the problem, in order to let the company engage in marketing campaigns as it wishes.
We are highly concerned that companies in Romania are still not having the freedom to make their own strategic decisions according to their development and shareholders’ needs and expectations and that public institutions are still not considering the business sector a partner and a source of support that needs to be preserved and sustained. We have solutions to various reform problems, but our proposals are hardly being considered in governmental measures. One of our solutions to support entrepreneurs is for public institutions to adopt a constructive and educational behavior rather than a distructive one. If a start-up is indeed making fiscal mistakes, it could get first a warning and advice about how to obey procedures, and not fines and intimidations. Only a stable macroeconomic environment, based on constructive partnership between the economic and the public sectors can provide the framework for us to encourage young people become business and social entrepreneurs.
We hope that stories like this will never happen again in Romania and we are kindly asking international organizations to support us and urge Romanian political leaders develop a more constructive attitude towards the business environment in general and young entrepreneurs specifically.
Excerpt from the memo addressed to the European Commission.
Reactions in the mass-media:
– Viata Libera Newspaper: Control and reaction. The weekly Actiunea is accusing political pressures.
