World Bank – opinion of the the Law on Voluntary Declaration and Tax Incentives

The World Bank considers the recently approved amendments to the Tax and Financial Amnesty Law as a step forward, and urges the authorities to implement them effectively in practice without delay. “We will cooperate with the authorities to assess the impact of legislation on tax and financial amnesty, with an emphasis on its implementation, both before and after these amendments. We will also monitor the adequacy of controls to manage the associated fiscal and management risks,” said in the report of the Permanent Mission of the World Bank in Moldova. As InfoMarket agency reported earlier, on November 8, the Parliament immediately passed two readings in an amendment to the Law on Voluntary Declaration and Tax Incentives, which among other things stipulate that the amount of the duty charged to the state budget of Moldova, with voluntary declaration of funds, was raised from 3% to 6 % of the declared amount.

Other amendments stipulate that persons who were or are subjects of property and personal interests declaration in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Declaration of Property and Personal Interests, as well as their family members (spouse, minor child) including adopted children and cohabitants cannot be subjects of voluntary property declaration. The subject of voluntary declaration will also be criminally liable in the event of giving false information in the preliminary declaration or in the notification of the voluntary declaration of property. The amendments stipulate that in order to take advantage of the guarantees provided by law, the subject of a voluntary declaration is obliged to declare all his property, which was previously legally registered as the right of ownership in the name of another person (nominal owner), as well as property declared at an underestimated value, or undeclared. If it is established that the subject of voluntary declaration does not voluntarily declare all the property subject to declaration, the guarantees provided by law will not apply to the declared property, and legislation on general grounds will be applied to these persons. Other amendments provide that exemption from tax control will not apply to taxpayers for whom, as of January 1, 2019, tax evasion was established, according to a final court decision, by deliberate inclusion in accounting, tax and / or financial documents, including electronic ones, of clearly distorted data on income or expenses that are not based on real transactions, are based on fictitious operations, etc