All the press these days is talking about the new tax changes and the impact they will have. Among them is the introduction of a tax in the IT sector on gross amounts exceeding 10,000 lei.
This threshold is small, not very small, but small. If you are exempt from tax, you work for an IT company, meaning you are not the one who changes the cartridge in the printer at the socks factory. This means that there is a good chance that your net salary will exceed 6500, which is the amount you will receive with 1000 gross tax free. The impact will be great, the percentage of employees affected is, I say, more than 80% in companies that do this. But I don’t want to talk about that.
IT employees went through a similar moment in 2018, when the tax percentages changed and the tax became 10% from 16%. Then for several months things were uncertain, the big companies kept meeting to see what they were doing, each waiting for the other to make a decision and analyze the impact on employees.
To complicate matters further, the state had to cover the 6 percent difference within 12 months, provided the employer did not raise wages during that period. This aspect is important.
The second aspect, which I did not confirm, but which I heard about from someone in HR, was that the state determined the coverage from its budget only by salary – if you want to receive benefits, you do not give a bonus this year.
At the time, I was working for a telecommunications company, one of two. The company I worked for decided to cover the 6% difference out of their own pocket and give raises and bonuses as if nothing had happened. The other decided to accept the object from the state, did not raise his salary and, probably, did not give bonuses.
Five years later, their decision still affects their image in the market. I have often heard from different people in IT phrases like “Who am I, <название компании>? Those who did not pay tax then? I don’t go to them.
I don’t know how much they saved back then. But I know enough of those who have gone. It is clear that not all, but enough and good enough that even now they could not send a single invoice for a client who has mobile and stationary services.
I also know that their hiring process became more difficult because people in the market were running away from them. Either they increased their offerings, losing what they saved, or they hired poorly trained people. Judging by the way IT services are evolving, I’m leaning towards the second option.
There is probably no one here who has the power to make decisions, or at least is not in a meeting to discuss this aspect, but if so, mention the name of the telecommunications company that is still trying to clear its name.
The IT market is not disappearing anywhere, not at all. There will be projects, there will be needs for people. You don’t want to be the company that didn’t make the difference when your direct competitor did.