Measures to support the business environment and voluntary compliance in Romania in response to COVID-19

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Extension of deadlines

In the context of the establishment of the state of emergency on the territory of Romania through the Presidential Decree no. 195/2020, the Ministry of Public Finance together with the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, have taken a series of measures to support the business environment, but also to support voluntary compliance.

 

Pursuant to the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 29/2020, as well as of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 33/2020 and of the Emergency Ordinance approved in the Government meeting of 9.04.2020:

1. Penalties and interest are not calculated accordingly with the Fiscal Procedure Code for the fiscal obligations that are due beginning of the date in which the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 29/2020 is coming into effect and which are unpaid until the cessation of these measures;

2. According to the law fiscal obligations starting from the date of entry into force of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 29/2020 and which are not paid until the end of these measures are not considered as being outstanding fiscal obligations.

3. Debt recovery by means of injunction, garnishment and capitalization of goods at auction has been suspended except for the recovery of the budgetary debts established by judicial decisions pronounced in criminal matters.

4. Interest and penalties, according to the Fiscal Procedure Code, are not calculated and not due for the late payment of the installments that are part of the unpaid installment schedules until the 30-day deadline has been met since the end of the state of emergency. In this case, the competent fiscal body, ex officio, restores the installments schedule, respecting the approved installments period. The new installment payments schedule is communicated to the debtor by the decision of the fiscal body.

5. The conditions for maintaining the validity of the payment installments granted according to the law are suspended. These conditions are considered fulfilled if the debtors pay the related obligations within 30 days from the end of the period of application of these fiscal measures.

6. For the obligations that represent a condition for maintaining the validity of the payment facilities, the taxpayers may request the modification of the payment installment, provided that the application is submitted until the expiry of the term mentioned at point 5, the provisions of art. 195 of the Fiscal Procedure Code being applied accordingly.

7. The budgetary obligations that represent a condition for maintaining the validity of the payment facilities, including those included in the installment chart rates, are not considered to be outstanding fiscal obligations.

8. Extension of VAT refunds with subsequent control.

9. The prescription deadlines of the fiscal body`s right to establish tax claims and to request foreclosure, as well as that of the taxpayer / payer to request the refund of the tax claims, provided by the Fiscal Procedure Code, are suspended or do not start to run until the fulfillment of 30 days from the moment of cessation of the state of emergency.

 

The aforementioned fiscal measures are applied during the period of state of emergency and 30 days after its termination.

10. A discount that is calculated on the corporate income tax is granted, if the taxpayers that are payers of corporate income tax pay the tax due for the first quarter of 2020, until the deadline of April 25, 2020 included. The discount is 5% for large taxpayers and 10% for medium  and other taxpayers.

The categories of taxpayers benefiting from the above discounts are as follows:

  • taxpayers paying corporate income tax, regardless of the system of declaration and payment provided by art. 41 of Law no. 227/2015 regarding the Fiscal Code, as subsequently amended and supplemented;
  • taxpayers who fall under the provisions of Law no. 170/2016 regarding the specific tax for some activities, for the corporate income tax due for the first quarter of 2020, determined for the activities carried out, other than those corresponding to the CAEN codes provided by law;
  • taxpayers who fall under the provisions of art. 16 paragraph (5) of Law no. 227/2015 regarding the Fiscal Code, with the subsequent modifications and completions, respectively the taxpayers who initially opted for a financial year different from the calendar year, and that subsequently chose that the fiscal year corresponds to the financial year. This category of taxpayers will benefit from the bonus if they pay the tax due for the quarter / quarterly advance payment until the deadline between April 25 and June 25, 2020.

 

11.  A 10% discount calculated on the tax due for the first quarter of 2020 is granted for the payment of the tax on the income of micro-enterprises related to this quarter, until April 25, 2020, included.

12. The taxpayers obliged to the payment of the specific tax for some activities, according to the Law no. 170/2016 regarding the specific tax for some activities, for the year 2020, do not owe specific tax for the period in which they totally or partially interrupt the activity during the state of emergency decreed.

13. For the submission of the annual financial statements for the financial year 2019, respectively of the annual accounting reports completed on December 31, 2019, the deadlines provided at art. 36 paragraph (1) and (3), respectively art. 37 of the Accounting Law no. 82/1991, republished, as subsequently amended and supplemented, are extended until July 31, 2020 included.

14. The deduction of the amounts representing sponsorships to public institutions and other bodies of the public authority out of the tax on the income of micro-enterprises, within the limit stipulated by the normative act, is performed on the basis of the sponsorship contract, without the obligation to register the respective beneficiary entities in the Register of cult entities / units for which is granted tax deductions.

15, The taxable persons registered for VAT purposes according to the Fiscal Code, which import medicines, protective equipment, other medical devices or equipment and toiletries that can be used to prevent, limit, treat and combat COVID-19, provided in the annex which forms an integral part of the emergency ordinance, will not make the actual payments at the customs bodies during the period for which the state of emergency was established and following the next 30 calendar days from the date of cessation of the state of emergency.

16. The modification of the calculation of the advance payments for the taxpayers that pay corporate income tax which applies the annual system of payment of the corporate income tax with advance payments, in the sense of establishing their level at the value established on the basis of the current quarterly calculation, as oposed to the 1/4 of the tax of the previous year (updated with the estimated consumer price index in the context of elaborating the initial budget of the year for which advance payments are made), to correlate the fiscal burden with the reduced receipts determined by the closing of activities, totally or partially, due to the measures to combat the Covid epidemic -19 affecting the economic environment.

 

Also, the Ministry of Public Finance and N.A.F.A. have adopted other measures to support the business environment, such as:

  1. The implementation of payment obligations onto the ghiseul.ro platform for the ease of fulfilling the payment obligations of the taxpayers;
  2. The introduction of new documents on the basis of which the taxpayers can be identified electronically in the Private Virtual Space Platform-PVS (other administrative documents starting with 1.04.2020);
  3. Ensuring the legal framework together with the Ministry of Public Finance for electronic filing and other forms specific to the avoidance of double taxation and international tax agreements (Ordinance of the Minister for Public Finance 1830/2020);
  4. Remotely resolve the taxpayers' requests with the help of 900 tax inspectors, who have access to the databases necessary to carry out specific activities (ex. tax certification certificates, VAT refunds, other categories of requests);
  5. The approval, during the state of emergency, of appeal claims before the bodies for solving the appeals and through electronic means of communication from distance / telephone, the specialized directorate maintaining the permanent connection with the taxpayers in order to find the best solutions;
  6. Providing remote assistance services for taxpayers in the fiscal and IT field in order to fulfill the fiscal obligations (PVS, Call - Center and Contact Form) to ensure fiscal compliance;
  7. The General Directorate of Customs and the General Directorate of Tax Anti-Fraud work in the first line to implement the military ordinances from the perspective of N.A.F.A.'s duties;
  8. The National Agency for Fiscal Administration carried out campaigns among taxpayers who asked for the VAT refund, in order to assure that the compensations and refunds are quickly prepared, which are necessary in the reimbursement procedure.
  9. The continuation of N.A.F.A`s reorganization process in order for the risk analysis to become the main mechanism for applying the fiscal administration procedures;
  10. The establishment of the Fiscal Analysis Group for rapid communication with representatives of the business environment and the academic environment, in which economic and fiscal measures are discussed and proposed to continue to support taxpayers.

 


 

In case you have any document of information which you find worth to share regarding the actions, measures or concrete experiences in countering the crisis, please do not hesitate to upload it to the subpage focusing on Covid-19 Crisis Support on IOTA website in order to share it with other members.