The announcement that the tax facilities granted to various sectors of activity will be suspended has angered the specialists in the IT field. “Since last year I’ve been evading” – is the message on a social network that has gathered hundreds of comments, pros and cons.
IT professionals could lose their facilities PHOTO: archive
IT professionals may no longer benefit from the tax benefits that have been granted to them for several years, the salaries obtained by specialists in this field being exempted from the payment of income tax (10%) applied to gross salaries of up to 10,000 lei. Construction and agricultural workers are in the same situation.
The measure, contained in the provisions of the “trenuleț” ordinance, could lead, draws the attention of an IT-ist, in a post on Reddit.com, to “grey” contracts, i.e. agreements between the employee and the employer that a part of the salary be paid “in the envelope”.
“Since last year I have been evading. I already talked to the employer and negotiated: the minimum on the card, the rest in the envelope.
I’m not going to let myself, the IT guy, be made fun of as some kind of class nerd and pay for their mistakes. I got everyone’s laugh. No one looks at auto mechanics, waiters, barbers, nail girls, etc. who make more than a “senior” at slave plantations like Epava, Cucknizant or Luxcoif… but we’ll still pay more. I will never give Ciolacu an extra penny. And neither to Iohannis (who, by the way, is not the de jure president of Romania). What’s stopping you?” – is the message that has gathered over 200 comments.
The decision of the IT-ist was approved by some of the commentators and strongly contested by others. Some drew the specialist’s attention to the fact that a low salary in the documents also means lower chances of obtaining a bank loan, for example. On the other hand, another opinion came, no serious company in the tech area will underdeclare the salary. “The consequences are far too great for a company caught doing something like this. The fine can be up to 100,000 RON and the company administrator can be criminally liable in case of repeated illegalities”, points out a commenter.
“Sand at the pension to swear at these people for giving you a small pension, because you have worked all your life”someone else catches the IT person’s attention. For higher incomes in old age there are other solutions, the T-ists are not left behind.
“That’s why I invest. I’d rather invest monthly in stock market or real estate funds than ever pay CASS again,” comes the answer.
Another commentator even presents a calculation (made with a pension calculator application) according to which, contributing to the state for a gross salary of 15,000 lei, for 25 years, the pension he would be entitled to would be only 3,727 lei. Even indexed to inflation, the money is very little, the commentator continues. If instead the amount owed monthly to the state, namely 3,187 lei, would be saved, in 25 years a handsome sum of over 267,000 dollars would accumulate.
“No gifts for teachers, no envelopes for doctors. Mandatory vacations outside the country”
Not paying taxes is not a solution, other opinions come instead. “Ah, the classic Romanian who steals and complains afterwards. We want a civilized country, but we don’t want to pay taxes. The mentality of the Romanian – a country like outside but let us remain the same. I understand that you are upset about how taxes are stolen, but this is the same mentality of the rich who have millions of euros but do not want to pay taxes on them. If you want a change, start a relevant discussion, get involved in NGOs, get involved in politics, etc..”, another commenter advises IT-ist.
The IT person is also charged by other people: “How he complains that his subsidy was taken away, which was a temporary benefit. And you mourn like a fool. You are an IT-ist, a royal job, however stressful it may be, you work from home in the heat, others work on the construction site in the rain, cold, mud. Others work 12-16 hours, days in a row, in hospitals, and I see people die every day.”
Another specialist in the field draws attention to the fact that the measure the Government is now calling for was somewhat expected, and even for a long time. The consequence, however, is that those who were earning well will now think twice before paying considerable sums for certain services.
“Personally, I will try to recover the difference from the small attentions I was paying: for tips, for paying for some works around the house that did not make up the price paid, etc. If you allow me a piece of advice, this is what you should do too, stop being “giving”! Limit purchases, stop overpaying, don’t rush into big purchases like apartments, try to take care of children alone and make them more responsible – without afterschool and unnecessary preparations! No gifts for teachers, no envelopes for doctors! Mandatory vacations abroad! You will see that in 6 months – 1 year, the world will begin to discover that it was good with IT people”, is another comment.
The discussion leads to issues that are also worthy of consideration, launching a call to protest otherwise. “There are over 150k IT employees, if not more, if we include freelancers. Let’s think what the Romanian stock market would look like if everyone sold their assets and moved them to a foreign broker, if you all exchanged RON-EUR/USD, if you were no longer a consumer in the country, instead you had consume outside the country. If going to a club or restaurant turns into staying at home, quality time with friends at home, in a maximum of 1 year this form of silent protest will have an impact. Well, it depends on the number of followers.” is another comment.
“It is not only the IT field or the construction field that support the economy of this country, these few fields only benefited from some tax exemptions while the rest endured full taxation, because, no, not all of us are made to sit with wheelbarrows in hand or big programmers. I, to my bad luck and bad inspiration, decided I wanted to be an engineer,” one comes comment from another sector of activity.
In order to benefit as much as possible from the income generated, those with SRLs have long been transferring part of their personal expenses to the company, someone explains in another comment. “Friends with SRL started buying their cars on the company to save some money. Metro food expenses passed off as Office Christmas brunch, etc. Not all are retarded to give 10% dividends to cover the state allowance per seat of some”explained in the comment.
“We are a mess of people, all intent on stealing. (…)They are all looking to evade and pay as little tax as possible, but then they claim to be offered excellent public services and have outrageous pensions. Unfortunately, civic and community spirit is dead in the 21st century. If something bad happens, the NPCs pull out their phone and film instead of jumping in to help. If in the past we followed the principle of “let the neighbor’s goat also die”, now I have gone to the level of let the neighbor’s goat die so that I can take it. We have built a halal society”, is another explanation.
“We’re joking, but this is just the beginning, when the big companies leave because of the increased taxes, they might not have anything to pay tax on anymore”, is the bitter conclusion of another commentator.
