The Romanian Finance Ministry concluded the draft Fiscal Code that will be endorsed next week by the Government and will be subjected to debate within the Parliament until July 1. The law is to be implemented starting January 1, 2007.

The code takes after the European directives regarding taxes, the VAT and excises. The normative act stipulates that, on the local level, the taxes will be collected every three years, twice a year compared to four times currently.

The local authorities suggested the code should establish the fields where a tax increase of up to 20 percent is admitted. The current provisions entail the possibility of increasing taxes for properties and cars, but no upper limit is specified.

As far as the real estate sector is concerned, the law changes regard the drop of VAT clearance for research and development activities, commission for goods stock market. Real estate leasing, delivery of real estate properties and land are to be absolved of VAT.

The excises will increase starting January 1 for gas, crude oil, natural gas, and electricity.