Foreign Companies in Romania Report ZERO Profit Annually

This is not recent news, but the Socialist – Liberal Government in Romania, led by a Socialist, has just started to wake up and at least pretend to take some actions against the foreign companies in Romania that report zero profit each year.

Precisely, the local press names hundreds of companies that, despite substantial profit margins and a whopping turnover, report zero profit in Romania to pay taxes elsewhere. Among them are the big hypermarket chains, the pharmaceutical giants and the industry behemoths. All are reporting zero profit, huge losses on paper, and, most probably, cashing all the real profits in their countries of origin.

The rage against foreign companies has just started in the local media; this time, it has substantial proof. People have started learning about these practices, and they are outraged in the context of galloping inflation.

Such lists were published online and are massively shared on social media platforms.

The foreign companies reporting ZERO profit and paying NO taxes on profit in Romania

Companies in Energy reporting ZERO profit and paying NO taxes on profit in Romania

E.ON Energie Romania SA: turnover 13,725,371,052 lei, profit 0, loss 358,899,374 lei

ENEL Energie SA: turnover 5,201,925,419 lei, profit 0, loss 391,072,544 lei

MET Romania Energy SA: turnover 5,076,830,236 lei, profit 0, gross loss 20,766,816 lei

ENEL Energie Muntenia SA: turnover 4,778,924,136 lei, profit 0, loss 377,568,182 lei

DELGAZ GRID SA (part of the E.ON group): turnover 1,728,069,608, profit 0, loss 125,064,813 lei

NIS PETROL SRL: turnover 700,608,804 lei, profit 0, loss 116,566,729 lei

Companies in retail reporting ZERO profit and paying NO taxes on profit in Romania

PROFI ROM FOOD SRL: turnover 11,660,657,559 lei, profit 0, gross loss 257,775,507 lei

ROMANIA HYPERMARCHE SA: turnover 1,513,108,057 lei, profit 0, loss 33,787,149 lei

UNILEVER SOUTH CENTRAL EUROPE: turnover 1,106,102,018 lei, profit 0, gross loss 64,865,225 lei

HAVI LOGISTICS SRL: turnover 1,045,011,293 lei, profit 0, gross loss 8,260,665

SUPECO INVESTMENT SRL: turnover 751,739,410 lei, profit 0, loss 5,509,765 lei

PUREFERT BALKANS SRL (wholesale of chemical products): turnover 735,579,818 lei, profit 0, gross loss 27,700,487 lei

Austrian companies reporting ZERO profit in Romania and paying NO taxes on profit

KRONOSPAN TRADING SRL: turnover 2,494,611,480 lei, profit 0, loss 15,546,600 lei

PORR CONSTRUCT SRL: turnover 1,251,719,899 lei, profit 0, gross loss 4,616,564 lei

ASIROM VIENNA INSURANCE: turnover 736,735,195 lei, profit 0, loss 2,523,516 lei

RWA RAIFFEISEN AGRO ROMANIA SRL: turnover 533,925,097 lei, profit 0, loss 4,978,855 lei

Foreign telecommunication companies reporting ZERO profit in Romania and paying NO taxes on profit

VODAFONE ROMANIA SA: turnover 4,695,157,165 lei, profit 0, loss 121,899,297 lei

ORANGE ROMANIA COMMUNICATIONS SA: turnover 2,436,927,140 lei, profit 0, loss 187,195,973 lei

TELEKOM ROMANIA MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS SA: turnover 1,378,276,599 lei, profit 0, loss 558,080,366 lei

Foreign Automotive companies reporting ZERO profit and paying NO taxes on profit

AUTOLIV ROMANIA SRL: turnover 4,879,212,343 lei, profit 0, loss 164,560,738 lei

CONTINENTAL AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS SRL: turnover 4,632,033,520 lei, profit 0, loss 331,190,369 lei

VITESCO TECHNOLOGIES ROMANIA SRL: turnover 1,803,187,606 lei, profit 0, loss 354,411,484 lei

PREH ROMANIA SRL: turnover 1,379,252,200 lei, profit 0, loss 60,238,509 lei

FAURECIA ROMANIA SRL (French leader of the automotive components industry; 1 out of 3 cars produced in the world includes components from Faurecia): turnover 1,300,419,790 lei, profit 0, loss 3,288,924 lei

YAZAKI COMPONENT TECHNOLOGY SRL: turnover 1,124,110,555 lei, profit 0, loss 38,354,474 lei

ADIENT SRL: turnover 779,868,427 lei, profit 0, loss 19,204,369 lei

CONTITECH ROMANIA SRL: turnover 776,730,249 lei, profit 0, loss 75,378,576

Foreign metallurgy companies reporting ZERO profit and paying NO taxes on profit

LIBERTY GALATI SA: turnover 7,919,502,237 lei, profit 0, loss 743,522,226 lei

DONALAM SRL: turnover 740,249,196 lei, profit 0, loss 35,097,380 lei

ARCELOR MITTAL HUNEDOARA SA: turnover 650,814,289 lei, profit 0, loss 180,472,664 lei

ALUM SA: turnover 501,771,469 lei, profit 0, loss 118,621,775 lei

Foreign industrial companies reporting ZERO profit and paying NO taxes on profit in Romania

ARCTIC SA (mother company BEKO): turnover 3,799,988,277 lei, profit 0, loss 141,093,292 lei

MAKITA EU SRL: turnover 2,884,412,434 lei, profit 0, loss 187,409,194 lei

PRYSMIAN CABLURI ȘI SISTEME SA: turnover 2,032,652,492 lei, net profit 0, net loss 1,494,637 lei

SMITHFIELD ROMANIA SRL (meat industry): turnover 1,280,635,214 lei, profit 0, loss 3,157,803

AAYLEX ONE SA (meat industry): turnover 1,145,423,080 lei, profit 0, loss 108,014,375 lei

KASTAMONU ROMANIA SA (timber industry): turnover 868,575,473 lei, profit 0, loss 91,980,415 lei

UNITED ROMANIAN BREWERIES BEREPROD SRL (beer industry ~ Tuborg, Skol, Holsten): turnover 549,712,509 lei, profit 0, loss 43,510,797 lei

CAROLI FOODS GROUP SRL: turnover 545,499,127 lei, profit 0, gross loss 1,505,172 lei

GRUPO ANTOLIN SIBIU SRL (manufacture of electrical lighting equipment): turnover 504,902,415 lei, profit 0, loss 64,785,671 lei

Foreign Pharmaceutical companies reporting ZERO profit and paying NO taxes on profit in Romania

DR.MAX SRL: turnover 3,193,482,856 lei, profit, loss 6,856,991 lei

PHARMAFARM SA: turnover 1,635,630,649 lei, profit 0, loss 6,925,639 lei

CENTRUL MEDICAL UNIREA SRL: turnover 1,004,486,227 lei, net profit 0, net loss 6,035,166 lei

Foreign software companies reporting ZERO profit and paying NO taxes on profit in Romania

AMAZON DEVELOPMENT CENTER ROMANIA SRL: turnover 616,776,705 lei, profit 0, loss 2,736,287 lei

ALSO TECHNOLOGY ROMANIA SRL: turnover 527,234,263 lei, profit 0, loss 20,548,782 lei

Foreign transport and courier companies reporting ZERO profit and paying NO taxes on profit in Romania

DELIVERY SOLUTIONS SA: turnover 736,498,414 lei, profit 0, loss 45,013,842 lei

VOS LOGISTICS CARGO SA: turnover 510,591,518 lei, profit 0, loss 8,923,149 lei

Can this practice of artificially diminishing profits be called fiscal optimization?

The above-mentioned companies pay no taxes in Romania and transfer all profits to other countries, in fiscal heavens or their countries of origin. Can this practice be legal? Technically, why shouldn’t the companies adopt it as long as law and watchdogs allow it?

Some call it fiscal optimization. Others say it is pure theft from Romania, the country that helps them achieve these huge profits while reporting zero profit on paper. While Romanians might have the impression of boycotting Austrian companies, or any other foreign companies, they make huge profits while paying zero taxes.

These companies would also defend their shadow practice and say they ensure Romanians thousands of working places. But this is something Romanian companies would’ve done as well. Yet, as we all know, the Romanian Government and the Romanian authorities bowed in front of foreign investors year after year, slamming the Romanian ones. No Government, from 1989 until the present, has done anything to help the Romanian capital thrive.

But not only authorities committed this sin. Romanian journalists and society, in its entirety, have started to attack Romanian entrepreneurs to benefit foreign ones. When asked if he regretted something he did in the years after the Romanian Revolution, one famous Romanian journalist answered he regretted attacking Romanian entrepreneurs and Romanian entrepreneurship.

During those years, when the hate against the Ceausescu regime was so big, Romanians viewed any Romanian having money to invest as a thieve. Nobody could have got so rich unless he stole that money from somewhere. So-called thieves had to be punished, while foreign investors were welcomed wholeheartedly. Step by step, the foreign companies reached the phase of dominating the whole economy, which is the situation now. But paying no taxes on profit is so utterly unfair that such a wake-up call for the Romanian authorities is needed.

Romania is like fiscal heaven for all these foreign companies, as they do what they want in the country. Friendly audits and lenient fines if something’s too obvious to be hidden from the general public – this is the protection these companies take advantage of from Romanian authorities.

We are pretty sure these practices are also standard in other Eastern European countries. Yet, Hungary, Poland and even Czech Republic woke up long ago and started combatting them. Romania is the dormant Eastern black sheep barely moving a hoof to defend its property. And this has to stop.

We don’t say all foreign companies have implemented these practices. There should be some that are reporting profits in the right way and paying taxes on profit. But most of the so-called significant contributors are “fiscally optimizing” their accountancy reports. And this is what this rage in Romania is all about.