According to the latest information on the market, changes to the Fiscal Code would lead to the introduction of a minimum tax of 0.5 percent of the net sales of boarding houses and hotels, regardless if these are profitable or not. In case of a posted profit, owners would pay an annual tax worth RON 6,500.
“This regulation does not take into account the fact that boarding houses have five, six, or seven rooms, and do not operate all the time. If they are forced to pay RON 6,500 annually, they simply will not have the money, and in order to be able to continue operating, they will enter the black market,” Marilena Stoian, President of the National Association of Rural, Ecological, and Cultural Tourism (ANTREC), told Business Standard.
“We will present a project to the Ministry of Tourism to request that the tax not be applicable for units with less than 8-10 rooms, because this will mean certain bankruptcy,” Stoian added.
ANTREC’s President indicated that “our problem is that no difference is made between family businesses, the case of most boarding houses, and profitable rural tourism. This tax will not discourage large players, but will block everybody else.”
