Any personal benefit is subject of taxation!

The Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Equity issued the Order 92/8.02.2008, who is modifying the application norms of the Law 19/2000. The change mainly consists in the redefining of the “gross income” that is subject of taxation, respectively by the inclusion of new categories of employee benefits as subjects of taxation.

Some of the incomes considered subject of taxation are: the amounts paid to the employees by retirement, leave and holidays bonuses, the amounts paid as result of the closing of labor relationship, social benefits offered as a result of a social or family event, presents offered in money to the employees on the benefit of minor children, presents offered to employees with various occasions, including the 8th of March, the amounts paid as result of civil conventions.

First, I would like to note a short fragment from a discussion carried on this theme. The person I have spoken with had recently graduated from a college of management and marketing and had never worked before. What do you consider to be a suitable job for you?… Well, I want to be a manager. Why do you want to be a manager? Well, because I will have a huge wage, a car, phone, laptop, and I will be important and people will respect me. And what do you think are the qualities a manager should have?… Well, to be tough with its employees, knowing how to control them, otherwise nobody will listen to, to tell them what to do and if they don’t listen to fire them. Yes, this is a part of a real conversation. Honestly, many times I get confused not knowing how to react in such cases: either to laugh out loud or to cry out loud.

Exactly how attractive is Romania for the new comers of various industries we can anticipate by measuring the volume of FDI, before and after joining EU, as well as by considering the rhythm and dynamics of business on its territory during the last years.

And yet… how attractive is Romania for a new comer on the market? We could probably say that, apart from the legislation and political frame, taxation, reforms, level of corruption and other conditions considered by investors, what actually summarizes and concludes the relationship with the investor is the honoring of a psychological agreement…

2008 brought new changes regarding the taxes and duties. The latest news in the Fiscal Code refers to VAT, the income tax and excises.

VAT: The reversed taxation procedure for real estate transactions between legal entities persons, who pay VAT, was eliminated.

At the same time, the VAT exemption was eliminated for the following services: giving information and making reports for the insured persons, marketing and administrative services that derive from the insuring-reinsuring services, respectively the organization and the management of the IT system of the insurance companies.

Income tax: The limit regarding the non-taxable income from the pensions will increase, from 900 to 1000 lei.

The idea of coaching has started to appear, even implementing in daily agitated companies’ lives, no matter if big, medium or small. There are different articles, TV shows, books debating even creating a media event on this theme. Indeed, it has a long time since is practiced and has good results “over the borders”. But human reticence makes us wonder: why coaching?

In actual fact this so-called reticence hides its dose of pragmatism: why choosing to invest enormous amounts of money in our employees? They really deserve this financial effort?

According to a recent study of the National Health Insurance Institution, IT experts stop paying the contribution to the health insurance, the contribution being paid by the employer. However, the employees will have free medical services, on the basis of a certificate from the employer.

This stipulation is part of a series of fiscal facilities for developing the IT industry.

According to the same stipulation the certificate that proves the quality of insured person for all the employees, will be released for the future by the National Health Insurance and not by the employer, as it happens now.

The National Agency of Fiscal Administration has decided that, starting with January the 1st 2008, taxes, contributions and other amounts owed by the tax payers to the general budget, are to be paid into a unique account.

The tax payers will use two payment orders for the State’s treasury, one for the obligations due to the state’s budget and the second, for the other obligations.

The amounts owed to the State’s budget will be paid into the unique account 20.47.01.01, and the fiscal debts to the social insurance budgets and to the special funds, into the unique account 55.02.

Every payment, for every tax, contribution and on other amounts owed to the general budget will be made distinctly.

National Bank of Romania (BNR) recently took the decision of increasing the interest with 0.5% , thus reaching up to 8%. According to specialists, this decision will have reduced effects on short term, including on the currency. But a new 0.25% increase is expected in February.

The interest increase will not influence the currency appreciation, but it can influence its depreciation and shows that BNR has decided to take measures to reach its inflation target.

The changes that the companies policies related to salaries will undergo in 2008, not only will attract and retain the employees, but they will also increase their loyalty.

This all happens due to continuous expansion of the companies, the increased deficit of personnel, and the increased personnel fluctuation (in 2007, the voluntary personnel fluctuation increased to 21% compared to 15.9% in 2006).

It is estimated that, in case the level of inflation will continue to increase in 2008, the salaries will also rise up to 15%.

In 2008, the average values of salaries increases for top management positions will be between 10% and 15%, for executive positions up to 11%, while the salaries for unqualified positions will rise up to 25%, because of the increase of the minimum salary.

Besides these increases, employers become more and more inventive in granting benefices in order to keep their employees’ loyalty:

After joining the European Union the Romanian State is forced to invest in the development of the railways infrastructure, by creating high speed railways that would unite Greece to the rest of the Europe.

The two European railways corridors that cross Romania are corridor IV, which makes the connection between Germany and Greece, and corridor IX, between Finland and Greece, their total length being almost 10.000 km.

The rehabilitation of the 2.000 km of railway in Romania, which will be part of the European railway system, will require over 10 billion Euro of investment, the goal being to reach a speed of maximum 140km/h in the case of trains for passengers and to respect the UE safety standards.

After the meeting between the Trade Unions, Employers Unions and the representatives of the Government that took place on Monday, to which the Minister of Labor and Family Paul Pacuraru, and the Minister of Economy and Finances, Mr. Varujan Vosganian took part, it was decided that starting with January 2008 Romania will have a unique minimum salary.

Therefore, starting with January the 1st 2008, according to the Government’s decision, the value of the minimum salary will be 500 lei. In case that the main indicators on which the State’s budget is built, respectively the Gross National Product, the inflation, and the level of the labor’s productivity are fulfilled, starting with July 2008 the minimum salary, at a national level, will be 540 lei.

Trade Unions and Employers Unions agreed to continue the negotiations regarding the additional act to the national collective labor agreement, for establishing the salary levels.

The National Institute of Statistics elaborated the revised version of the Classification List of the Activities within the National Economy (CAEN), in order to be compatible with the European classification list. The changes will apply starting with January the 1st 2008.

Thus, the activities within the national economy will be classified according to a new structure, compatible with the EU standards. The new codes system will be applicable within the EU, and Romanian companies will be able to take part in any European auction. Good news for the companies is that they will have much more options to register within different domains of economy.

Recently, I have participated at a start course in NLP (neuro–linguistic programming). For those unfamiliar with this term, I could give one of the „definitions”, sustaining that NLP: “is the applied amount of psychology knowledge, research of mind and language, and makes possible the teaching and learning of success communication and of thinking and action oriented towards objectives for personality development.”

I can also tell you it was quite an experience that I enjoyed a lot and has proved I do not know myself that well as previously considering. It has determined to ask myself about my own person and to realize that knowing me is a laborious process, but worth every penny.

One of Ascent Group’s main concerns was always the improvement of the quality for the services we offer. This is the reason why our group has always carefully chosen top partners in all the fields of its activity.

November marks the launching in Romania of an elite company in the field of human resources services, mainly executive search, through an association between Jordan Sheppard and Ascent Group.

Jordan Sheppard is a multinational company in the field of human resources, who has chosen to launch its activity in Romania through an association with Ascent Group. The result of this partnership is Jordan Sheppard Romania.

Nowadays, employers together with employees confront themselves with the so-called issue of “personnel fluctuation”. Has become such an ordinary problem that we have begun to ignore it. Actually, this seeming indifference is a way of “defending” ourselves against the phenomena we do not know.

Certainly, the personnel fluctuation is a phenomenon that is extending every day. What could affect more severely, within a company, than one employee’s resignation or even more? Are we fully aware of the costs that are emphasized by this “quitting”? Much more, the negative impact they have on the other employees?

The first seminar for Identity Compass licensing in Romania took place in Bucharest during 2nd and 4th of March, 2007, at Novotel Hotel. On this occasion, Ascent Group has become the representative of Identity Compass in Romania. At the same time Ascent Group through its consultants has achieved the ability to licence this evaluation tool all over Romania and Republic of Moldova. Mr. Arne Maus, the founder of Identity Compass International GmbH, also attended at this seminar from Bucharest.

The Identity Compass® is an innovative personnel selection tool which uses an inventory of “thinking structures and preferences” to register how people think and make decisions in typical work situations. It points out what motivates employees, what their values and career goals are and give clear guidance as to which employees are likely to perform best in which situations and how improvement can best be achieved.