New legislative modifications in March

1) Law no. 16 of March 8, 2021 regarding the State Social Insurance Budget for 2021

In the Official Gazette no. 238 of 9 March 2021, Law regarding the State Insurance Budget for 2021 was published, which reflects that the new average gross wage used to substantiate the State Social Insurance budget for 2021 decreases to RON 5,380, compared to RON 5,429 in 2020.

This change implicitly means a decrease of the technical unemployment benefit ceiling from 4,072 lei to 4,035 lei (75% of the average gross wage).

2) Order no. 85 of 17 March 2021 regarding the approval of the Procedure for cancellation the late payment charges in accordance with the provisions of chap. II - Cancellation of late payment charges from GEO 69/2020 for the amendment and completion of Law no. 227/2015 on the Fiscal Code, as well as for the establishment of fiscal measures

 This Order published in the Official Gazette no. 266 of 17 March 2021, details the procedures for granting a postponing of payment or for cancelling of late payment interest and penalties are reflected. Also it provides templates for the necessary forms such as: notification of the intention to cancel the late payment charges, taxes computation sheet, agreement report, decision confirming the postponing of payment, cancellation request, etc.

3) Order no. 409 of the President of the National Agency of Fiscal Administration for amending and completing some provisions regarding the application of the cash VAT accounting system

 In the Official Gazette no. 278 of 19 March 2021, a series of updates and amendments were published for the application of the cash VAT accounting system, many of them aiming to clarify possible confusions regarding the moment when the new threshold of RON 4,500,000 applies.

4) Order no. 393 of 22 March 2021 regarding the approval of the Procedure regarding the fiscal risk assessment for the taxable persons requesting the registration for VAT purposes according to art. 316 para. (12) lt. e) of Law no. 227/2015 on the Tax Code, for the approval of the Registration Procedure, upon request, for VAT purposes according to art. 316 para. (12) lt. e) of Law no. 227/2015 on the Tax Code, as well as for the approval of the Procedure for cancellation, ex officio, of the registration for VAT purposes of taxable persons who present a high fiscal risk according to art. 316 para. (11) lt. h) of Law no. 227/2015 regarding the Tax Code

 The Order approves 3 procedures regarding the cancellation of VAT registration due to the high fiscal risk, as follows:

4.1. The procedure regarding the fiscal risk assessment for the taxable persons requesting the registration for VAT purposes according to art. 316 para. (12) lt. e) of the Tax Code, i.e., for taxable persons whose VAT registration has been canceled, due to the high fiscal risk and who may request a new VAT registration if the situation that led to the respective cancellation ceases.

The determination of the level of fiscal risk, respectively the scores assigned to the risk criteria, as well as the method of computing the tax risk are established at the level of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration and is approved by its president. Upon receipt of the application for registration for VAT purposes, NAFA checks whether the shareholders / administrators of the taxable person requesting registration for VAT purposes according to art. 316 para. (12) lt. e) of the Tax Code, that are tax registered in Romania, or the taxable person itself do not have certain felonies para.lt.in their tax record. The categories of people checked are as follows:

a) The directors designated with the Trade Registry, in the case of stock companies or limited partnerships established under Companies Law no. 31/1990;

b) Majority shareholders or the sole shareholder and / or directors designated with the Trade Registry, in the case of companies other than those mentioned at letter a), established under  Companies Law 31/1990.

The taxable person requesting the registration for VAT purposes according to art. 316 -para. (12) lt. e) of the Tax Code provided in para. (1) and (2) it is considered to have a high tax risk if the score obtained is below 51 points out of 100.

4.2. The registration procedure, at the request of the persons whose registration for VAT purposes has been canceled due to the fact that they present a high fiscal risk (according to art. 316 para. (12) letter e) of the Tax Code)

After receiving the registration request, the authorities check if the taxable person falls into another cancellation situation for VAT registration, as provided by art. 316 para. (11) lt. a), c) -e) of the Tax Code, in which case the request is rejected.

Otherwise, the application shall be forwarded to the department responsible for assessing the tax risk, which may determine whether the situation leading to the cancellation of the VAT registration has ceased. This department prepares a report attesting the approval or rejection of the application for VAT registration. Upon receipt of the report, it is checked again whether the taxable person falls into another VAT cancellation situation. If so, the application for registration is rejected, and if not, it is approved.

4.3. The procedure for cancellation, ex officio, of the registration for VAT purposes of taxable persons who present a high fiscal risk (according to art. 316 para. (11) letter h) of the Tax Code).

Taxable persons who do not obtain at least 51 points out of 100 according to the risk analysis scale, are considered to have a high tax risk and the procedure for ex officio cancellation of registration for VAT purposes is initiated. Before making a decision, the taxpayer's right to be heard must be ensured.

5) G.E.O. no. 19 from 29 March 2021 regarding certain tax measures, as well as for changing and clarifying certain pieces of tax legislation 

In the Official Gazette no. 315 / 29.03.2021, GEO no. 19/2021 was published, which extended some deadlines and suspended some recently introduced tax incentives.

The following extension of deadlines were introduced:

• The deadline for submitting the notification of restructuring of tax obligations was extended until 30 September 2021;
• The deadline for submitting the application for cancellation of late payment interest and penalties according to G.E.O. 69/2020 was extended until 31 January 2022;
• Extension of the incentive regarding the VAT reimbursement for which the tax audit will take place at a later date: between 31st March 2021 and 31st January 2022 taxable persons can get the VAT refund for which the tax audit will be performed later. 

- Fiscal assessment of expenses regarding the costs with early education of children: as a result of the notification published on the official website of the Ministry of Finance, this G.E.O. practically suspends the tax incentive between 1 April 2021 -31 December 2021.

- Special income tax regime for HORECA activities: the tax exemption has been extended, so that special income tax will not be due for 90 days starting 1 April 2021.

- The tax due by the members of associations without legal personality: the cost of the electronic fiscal cash registers installed in one year is distributed pro rata with the contribution to the association, as per the contract.

6) Order no. 435 regarding the approval of the Procedure for installing the electronic fiscal cash registers, defined at art. 3 para. (2) of GEO 28/1999 on the obligation of economic operators to use fiscal electronic cash registers, at NAFA’s national computer system for surveillance and monitoring of fiscal data 

The order published in the Official Gazette of Romania no. 319 of 30 March 2021 establishes the deadlines for connecting the electronic fiscal cash registers (AMEF) to the computer system of NAFA, as follows:

a) Until 30.06.2021, the economic operators included in the category of big taxpayers;

b) Until 30.11.2021, the economic operators in the category of medium and small taxpayers;

c) the economic operators that purchase fiscal electronic cash registers after the date of 01.12.2021, at the date of installing the fiscal electronic cash register.

On a monthly basis, NAFA sends to economic operators’ users of fiscal electronic cash registers, through the “Virtual Private Space” service, messages about possible malfunctions regarding the files transmitted from the fiscal electronic cash registers to the computer system.

It also details the technical procedure for connecting the devices as well as the information contained in the statement of the operators located in areas without electronic communications networks.

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