Most important changes in the tax legislation in December 2022

1. Changes to OG 16/2022, and implicitly to the Fiscal Code 

Law 370/2022, published in the Official Gazette no. 1228 from 20.12.2022, approves with a series of changes OG 16/2022, as follows:

 

1.1. Tax on the income of micro-enterprises

 

• The turnover limit of EUR 500,000 applies starting with income obtained after January 1, 2023. Thus, companies that at the end of 2022 recorded income between EUR 500,000 and EUR 1,000,000 can still apply the micro-enterprise income tax regime. 

 

• Companies that obtain income from tax consultancy services will still be able to apply micro-enterprise tax from 2023. 

 

• If the companies operating in the hospitability industry also obtain income from activities other than those related to the NACE codes related to the hospitability industry and these other income exceeds EUR 500,000 or represents more than 20% from consultancy or management, for these additional activities corporate income tax will be due. 

 

1.2. Tax on dividends

 

The situation of interim dividends distributed during 2022 is clarified, in the sense that the tax rate for such dividends remains 5%. 

 

1.3. The local tax changes from OG16/2022 are postponed

 

• The changes regarding local taxes and fees provided by OG16/2022 will be postponed until January 2025.

 

• An exemption from the building tax is introduced for new or rehabilitated residential buildings, for which the owners carry out at their own expense works to increase the energy performance, for the installation of electricity production systems from photovoltaic sources or for systems certified ecological for the collection and treatment of waste water resulting from own consumption. 

 

1.4. Obligation to accept card payments 

 

Starting from January 1, 2023, companies that have cash sales exceeding RON 50,000 must accept card payments.

 

2. Minimum wage in 2023

In the Official Gazette of December 9, 2022, Government Decision No. 1447/2022 was published, according to which starting from January 1, 2023, the national minimum gross salary is RON 3,000 per month. We remind you that this amount will also be used to calculate the mandatory social security contributions due by individuals that received income other than wages.

 

3. Updated procedure for the use and operation of the national system RO e-transport

On 29.12.2022, NAFA Order no. 2545 for the approval of the Procedure for the use and operation of the national system for monitoring the transport of goods with high fiscal risk “RO e-Transport” was published in the Official Gazette no. 1264. This Order nullifies and replaces Order 1190/2022.

 

The most important updates are: 

 

• The categories of vehicles that can be monitored are those with a maximum authorized mass of more than 2.5 tons (previously the limit was 3.5 tons) 

 

• The weight (500 kg) and value (10,000 lei) limits remain 

 

• To use the system, users must be registered in the SPV (Private Virtual Space) 

 

• Rules are established for the situation in which the goods are not received by the beneficiary or if the transport is not completed within the validity period of the UIT code 

 

We remind you that starting from January 1, 2023, sanctions up to RON 100,000 may be applied for non-compliance with the provisions of the RO e-Transport legislation.

 

4. Changes to the list of medium taxpayers and the SAF-T application rules for them

A new list of medium taxpayers is approved, applicable from January 1, 2023. 

 

Through OPANAF 2518/2022, the following clarifications are made regarding medium taxpayers and reference date regarding SAF-T reporting: 

 

• for taxpayers classified as medium taxpayers on December 31, 2021 and who are no longer in this category on January 1, 2023, filing D406 becomes optional from January 1, 2023, and will become mandatory starting January 1, 2025; 

 

• for taxpayers classified on December 31, 2021 in the category of small taxpayers, who maintained this classification during 2022, and starting from January 1, 2023 are classified as medium taxpayers, the submission of D406 will become mandatory starting from January 1, 2023.

 

5. Taxation of tips

In the Official Gazette, Part I no. 1255 of December 27, 2022, Law no. 376/2022 for the amendment and completion of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 28/1999 regarding the obligation of economic operators to use electronic tax registers. 

 

The act brings clarifications regarding the definition of the tip but also regarding its taxation, such as: 

 

• A tip represents any amount of money voluntarily offered by the customer, in addition to the value of the goods delivered or the services provided by the economic operators who carry out activities corresponding to CAEN codes: 5610 - «Restaurants», 5630 - «Bars and other beverage serving activities». 

 

• The tip is not subject to VAT 

 

• Economic operators must hand the customer a bill prior to issuing the tax receipt, in which sections are provided for the customer's choice of the level of the tip offered (between 0% and 15%, or as a gross amount). 

 

• The tip is transferred to the same tax receipt as the rest of the service, and on the invoice (if issued) 

 

• The amounts are distributed to the employees after the withholding of income tax (10%), the income being considered as income from other sources from a personal tax perspective. However, this income is not considered when computing the social security contributions. 

 

• The amounts distributed to the employee do not represent an expense, they cannot be assimilated to an income element at the level of the economic operator, nor will they be able to be reclassified as salary income by the tax authorities; 

 

• As an exception, for the delivery of products to customers' homes, economic operators do not have the obligation to highlight the tip on the tax receipt.

 

• Sanctions for non-compliance with the law are between RON 2,000-4,000, with the possibility of paying half of the minimum (RON 1,000) within 15 days.

 

6. Amendments to some tax registration forms

In the Official Gazette no. 1278 from December 30, 2022, Order 2578/2022 regarding the amendment of OPANAF no. 1,699/2021 for the approval of the tax registration forms of taxpayers and the types of tax obligations that form the tax vector, by which Forms 010 and 700 are modified to accommodate the changes brought by OG 16/2022 for the tax specific to certain activities (no longer applicable) and the micro-enterprise tax.

 

7. Extension of some deadlines

By Government Emergency Ordinance no. 168/2022 (EOG no. 168/2022) amendments and additions were made to several pieces of legislation. We mention some of the relevant changes in the tax area: 

 

• It clarifies the situation in which, after the unused amount representing sponsorships is redirected by the tax authorities, the tax amount is diminishes, and the redirected amount was too high, in the sense that the extra redirected difference is owed by taxpayers to the state budget. 

 

• Early education tax incentives, as well as the filing of forms 392A, 392B and 393, are postponed until 31 December 2023. 

 

Disclaimer

The information contained in this newsletter is intended to give you an overview of new legislation; the newsletter does not contain a comprehensive analysis of each topic. For more information on the topics covered please contact us. No liability is accepted for decisions or omissions following the use of the contents of this newsletter. All Crowe newsletters are available at the address www.crowe.ro.

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