Romanian President Says Any Income Should Be Taxed

He added that all incomes should be taxed and referred, among others, to social security contributions, which, he said are withheld directly from employees’ incomes and are not taxed.

Basescu also spoke about the minimum guaranteed income and the minimum guaranteed pension, stressing that the latter must not be scrapped, but taxed like any other income. He underscored that Romania allows way too many tax exemptions, which, he pointed out, mostly favored „the political clientele of various governments throughout the time.”

According to Basescu, Romania must do something immediately and „clean up” the system of social welfare and related costs. Basescu reiterated the need to do away with „all social welfare programs that simply incite to laziness and indolence,” adding that Romania cannot borrow money „over and over again” to pay salaries and pensions, „the way it happens now.”

Basescu highlighted that he is against the recent increase in the value added tax to 24% and stressed that cutting public spending is the best solution. He also said he hopes the Finance Ministry will start working on a new Tax Code to allow the taxation of all incomes and the Labor Ministry will start checking all cases of disability pensions.

The head of state concluded saying all programs funded by local authorities were used to buy votes.