Romania's new tax law expected to deal major blow to trade with Turkey

Romania has amended its fiscal code, ruling that invoices sent from countries that are on the grey list of the European Union non-cooperative tax jurisdictions will be considered “invalid,” the Turkish newspaper Dünya reported. As Turkey is on this EU list, Romanian companies will no longer be able to deduct the cost of Turkish imports from taxable income, as a result of which trade between the two countries is expected to receive a significant blow.

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Trade between Turkey and Romania is expected to receive a significant blow after the latter amended its tax code as of the beginning of this year.

Romania will start considering the invoices sent from countries that are on the grey list of the European Union non-cooperative tax jurisdictions “invalid,” Turkish newspaper Dünya said on Jan. 26.

As Turkey is on this EU list, the Romanian companies will no longer be able to show money spent on Turkish imports as a “cost” and deduct it from taxes, the newspaper wrote.

“Even when significant EU countries such as Germany, France and Italy have not yet implemented a sanction [on Turkey], it is difficult to understand why Romania adopted such an implementation against Turkey, which has an important place in the country's production chain,” wrote the newspaper.

“Our colleagues in Romania have said that the policymakers have probably not well calculated the regulation's result. Our colleagues are of the opinion that Romania will definitely take a step back from this regulation,” the Turkish newspaper further wrote.