Chamber passes 85pct tax on state pensions in excess of 7,001 lei

At a plenary session on Wednesday, the Chamber of Deputies passed, 307 to 1, a bill amending and supplementing Law 227/2015 on the Tax Code regulating taxation of old-age income and allowances. According to a joint amendment of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Save Romania Union (USR), state pensions of up to and including 2,000 lei are tax exempt, those between 2,000 and 7,000 are taxed 10% the difference between 2,000 lei and the actual pension, while state pensions in excess of 7,001 lei are taxed 85% of what exceeds the amount of 7,001 lei. PSD floor leader Alfred Simonis requested the introduction at Thursday's plenary session of a provision of the law that refers strictly to the lawmakers. "In order to avoid any doubt of unconstitutionality, I propose that tomorrow, at the joint plenary session, we introduce this bill strictly for the article referencing the lawmakers, because, as you know, any provision regarding lawmakers requires a joint plenary session of Parliament to change their statutes (...) The joint plenary session will have to take a vote on this article again. That way we have a constitutional law that eliminates all special state pensions in Romania," said Simonis. Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Marcel Ciolacu, who chaired the sitting, announced that on Thursday morning there will be a video session of a meeting of the joint standing bureaus on this matter. The bill, adopted by the Senate in 2019, was supported in the plenary session by all floor groups, with the Chamber of Deputies being the decision-making body. AGERPRES (RO - author: Catalina Matei, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)