The Social Democratic Party leader on the surtax of those who own more than two properties or two cars: „This is a social-democratic approach, and I want to tell you that it exists all over Europe”

Marcel Ciolacu, the head of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) said on Saturday that the proposals of the Finance Minister Adrian Câciu to overtax those who own more than two properties or two cars are „a social-democratic approach”, considering that direct property taxation in Romania represents a lower percentage of GDP than the European average.

„It is a social-democratic approach and I want to tell you that it exists all over Europe. For direct property taxation, we have the lowest coefficient in the composition of the GDP, I believe it’s 2% compared to the European average of 4.6%. So it’s normal because you look at the numbers and the numbers never lie. You look at the statistics and you see where the field and the area you need to cover is so that you get into the European trend. We cannot live in Europe with other rules,” Ciolacu said.

The Social Democrat leader also added that in order to align with European trends, the situation of the flat tax rate should also be analyzed.
„We still have a flat tax in Romania, but there are only three other countries in Europe that have a flat tax and we can hardly call them states… one is about the size of Bucharest. So they are not economically developed states. We have to decide: do we want, in Romania, to reinvent hot water all the time, or do we want to enter the eurozone categorically. (…) These fiscal measures are included in the government program – not necessarily the abolition of the flat tax explicitly – and we will analyze this year a different fiscal approach. You know very well that any changes to the Tax Code come into force six months later, in order to have predictability and transparency”, explained the PSD leader, quoted by Agerpres.

Asked about the fact that the PNL, with which the PSD forms the current governing coalition, is a supporter of the flat tax rate, Marcel Ciolacu said that there are right-wing governments in Europe that do not apply such a rate and he does not consider this as a violation of the liberal doctrine.

„We have formed a coalition with the National Liberal Party at a difficult time for Romania and we have assumed this thing. We definitely need to standardize, but there are still right-wing governments in Europe that do not have a flat tax rate, so it is not a defining element for a right-wing party to have a flat rate. We don’t necessarily have to say that, sir, it’s contrary to the liberal doctrine,” the PSD president added, quoted by Agerpres.

Edited for English by Ovidiu H. Original article in Romanian.