The atypical tax that causes effects in the chain. Unemployment is rising, loans are becoming more expensive.

The Minimum Tax on Turnover (IMCA) and its equivalent, which is more burdensome for the banking system, long-standing desires of socialist-origin parties for which taxing companies to the bone is an ideal, became a reality in 2024. Since then, the state budget has collected somewhat larger amounts; however, the negative effects of this surtax are incomparably greater and, at the extreme, can lead to massive blockages in the economy, including in the banking system. Instead of going into investments or salaries, about 2.5 billion lei went, in just one year, into the state budget.

"In numerous cases, the minimum tax leads to effective tax rates that far exceed the profit tax, reaching extreme values of over 70%, 100%, or even 200%." explains Iulian Lolea, chief economist of the Concordia Confederation, for New Money.

It is a completely atypical situation, rarely encountered in the world and almost absent from the European Union, in which the state takes practically all the profits of companies and something extra.