Electronic Filing Sees Romania Leap 76 Places In Latest World Bank Paying Taxes Survey

Andrei Badiu, partner in Russell Bedford firm 3B Expert Audit SRL, Bucharest, comments on World Bank Doing Business report. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) November 29, 2014 - Romania has once again proved one of the strongest performers in the latest World Bank Doing Business survey, largely due to the introduction of electronic tax filing systems.

The latest report, Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency, examines the compliance burden on entrepreneurs in 189 jurisdictions worldwide. Russell Bedford member firms have contributed to each of the report's Paying Taxes surveys since 2009, contributing data on tax regulation, recent reforms, and the real costs of tax compliance. Responding to criticism of its methodology in recent years, the 2015 edition reflects a number of changes, no longer ranking countries' performance solely on their aggregate scores in various categories, but also in terms of their 'distance to frontier', reflecting each country's progress in moving towards accepted norms of international best practice.

While Romania has increased its overall performance on this basis, moving 1.74 percentage points closer to the 'frontier', it is in reform of the fiscal environment that the country has delivered a stellar performance, moving a massive 76 places in the Paying Taxes survey, from 128th to 52nd - a reflection of the country's recent introduction of electronic filing and payment systems, with companies now spending an average 159 hours per year on tax compliance, compared to last year's 200.

Andrei Badiu, partner in Russell Bedford member firm 3B Expert Audit SRL, commented: "We have long known that a heavy compliance burden was severely impacting the competitiveness of Romania's businesses against their European peers. The introduction of electronic filing has made a huge impact here, reducing the time spent on compliance to levels comparable with leading OECD jurisdictions."

For more information about the World Bank's Doing Business reports, please visit www.doingbusiness.org.

About Russell Bedford International
Established in 1983, Russell Bedford International is a global network of independent firms of accountants, auditors, tax advisers and business consultants. Ranked amongst the world's leading accounting and audit networks, Russell Bedford is represented by some 600 partners, 5000 staff and 290 offices in more than 100 countries in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. Russell Bedford International is a member of the IFAC Forum of Firms and a member of EGIAN, the European Group of International Accounting Networks and Associations.

Contacts:
Andrei Badiu
3B Expert Audit SRL
T: +40 21 211 74 59
E: andrei ( @ ) auditor dot ro
W: www.auditor.ro

Kempton Bedell-Harper
Russell Bedford International
T: +44 20 7410 0339
E: info ( @ ) russellbedford dot com
W: www.russellbedford.com.

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