Main legislative changes of December 2023

1. Changes of the Tax Code and other regulations by the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 115/2023

2. Updated methodological norms for the application of the Tax Code regarding VAT and income from the transfer of real estate from personal assets

3. Lists of large and medium taxpayers, aplicable from 1st of January 2024

4. VAT updates – the new register for the purchase of housing with a reduced VAT rate and obtaining a certificate for deferral of payment at customs of VAT

5. Individual taxation updates - exclusion of IT activities from self-employed activities for which the net income can be determined based on lump sums, new tax returns and the average gross salary for the year 2024 6. Clarifications regarding legal entities operating in the oil and gas sectors and owing specific turnover tax

7. Romania has completed the synthesized text for 55 double taxation treaties with the changes brought by the multilateral convention

8. The procedure for the expansion of the mechanism for offsetting tax claims has been published

9. Several procedures and statements regarding the reporting obligations of platform operators have been published

1. Changes of the Tax Code and other regulations by the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 115/2023

The Government Emergency Ordinance no. 115 of 2023, published in the Official Gazette no. 1139 of 15 December 2023, introduces a news series of tax changes regarding the corporate income tax, the tax on the income of microenterprises and the taxation of individuals. Also, other normative acts are modified.

The changes can be found in the Flash alert of December 21, 2023 here.

2. Updated methodological norms for the application of the Tax Code regarding VAT and income from the transfer of real estate from personal assets

The methodological norms have been updated and clarified in respect to VAT rates for powdered milk for newborn babies, infants and young children, sweet bread and biscuits, foods with added sugar, food supplements and the delivery of social housing. Clarifications are provided in respect to the following cases: VAT registration made simultaneously with the registration in the Trade Register and the suspension of the execution of the decision to cancel VAT registration, as ordered by the courts. The provisions entered into force on 1st January 2024.

The methodological norms have also been updated and clarified for the taxation of the income from the transfer of real estate from personal assets regarding the definition of the taxpayer, the period of holding, the date of acquirement and establishing the tax. The provisions entered into force on 29th December 2023.

The amendments are published in Decision no. 1336/2023 amending the Methodological norms for the implementation of Law no. 227/2015 on the Tax Code, published in the Official Gazette no. 1196 of December 29, 2023.

3. Lists of large and medium taxpayers, applicable from 1st of January 2024

NAFA published the lists for large and medium taxpayers on 7th December 2023, applicable from 1st January 2024. The publication of these lists follows the amendments introduced by Order no. 1945 of 2023 regarding the selection of large and medium taxpayers, to enhance the efficiency of administering these taxpayers.

For the administration of large taxpayers, the continuity and investment criteria have been removed. With regard to medium taxpayers, the continuity criterion is removed, and the number of medium taxpayers is increased from 15,000 to 20,000.

Order no. 1945/2023 amending certain orders of the NAFA president regarding the organization of the administration of large and medium taxpayers was published in the Official Gazette no. 1097 of December 06, 2023.

4. VAT updates – the new register for the purchase of housing with a reduced VAT rate and obtaining a certificate for deferral of payment at customs of VAT

In line with the amendments introduced by Law No 296 of 2023, a new procedure is published regarding the organization of the Register for the purchase of housing with reduced VAT rate.

In line with the amendments introduced by the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 115 of 2023, to receive the certificate of deferral of payment at customs of VAT, the persons are required to submit to the Romanian Customs Authority an affidavit, certifying that they do not have outstanding budgetary obligations, other than those mentioned in the Tax Code.

Order no. 2080/2023 approving the Procedure regarding the organization of the Register of housing purchases with reduced VAT rate, was published in the Official Gazette no. 1990 of December 29, 2023. Order no. 5454/2023 amending the Norms regarding the procedure for granting the certificate for deferral of VAT payment at customs and the release of the guarantee for imports of goods, was published in the Official Gazette no. 1193 of December 29, 2023.

According to Order no. 5308 of 2023, the following activities are excluded from the Nomenclature of self-employed activities for which the net income can be determined based on lump sums: services performed in the IT field, other than those generating copyrights or related rights, with CAEN codes 6202: IT consultancy activities and 6203: Management activities ( operation and exploitation) of computing means. The exclusion applies starting from the income generated in the year 2024.

In December, the following tax returns related to individual taxation were published:

form 112 "Statement regarding the payment obligations for social contributions, income tax and the nominal record of insured persons", that has been updated with the new provisions regarding tax facilities and domestic providers; it is applicable starting with the income corresponding to the month of November 2023;
form 114 "Statement regarding the payment obligations of insurance contribution and nominal record of professional cultural workers for whom the contribution has been paid"; it is applicable starting with the declarative obligations relating to the second semester of the year 2023.

In accordance with Law no. 422 of 2023, the average gross salary used average gross earnings used to base the state social security budget for 2024 is 7,567 RON.

Order No 5308/2023 repealing IT services from the Nomenclature of self-employed activities for which the net income can be determined based of lump sums was published in the Official Gazette no. 1105 of 8 December 2023. Order no. 1.994/880/1.181/4.594/2023 (Form 112) was published in the Official Gazette no. 1112 on December 11, 2023. Order no. 2.006/1.193/4.680/2023 (Form 114) was published in the Official Gazette no. 1164 on December 21, 2023. Law no. 422/2023 on the state social insurance budget for the year 2024 was published in the Official Gazette no. 1188 on December 29, 2023.

6. Clarifications regarding legal entities operating in the oil and gas sectors and owing specific turnover tax

There are listed the codes from the Classification of Activities from the National Economy, related to the activities carried out in the oil and gas sectors by legal entities, which owe specific turnover tax, according to the Tax Code. The provisions entered into force from 1st January 2024.

Order no. 5433/2023 regarding the determination of legal entities carrying out activities in the oil and gas sectors according to the Tax Code, was published in the Official Gazette no. 1185 of December 28, 2023.

7. Romania has completed the synthesized text for 55 double taxation treaties with the changes brought by the multilateral convention

Romania has completed the synthesized text for 55 double taxation treaties with the changes brought by the multilateral convention for the implementation within tax treaties of measures related to preventing the erosion of tax base and profit shifting, convention ratified in Romania by Law no.5/2022.

The summarized text of each of the 55 double taxation treaties can be found here.

The provisions of the Multilateral Convention are applicable as from 1st January 2024, under certain conditions.

8. The procedure for the expansion of the mechanism for offsetting tax claims has been published

As a result of the changes of the Tax Procedure Code introduced by Law no. 93 of 2023, the procedure for extinguishing, through offsetting, of certain, liquid and exigible tax claims of taxpayers in respect of local budgets, established by final court decision, with tax/budgetary obligations owed to the state budget has been published. The procedure also includes the exchange of information between local tax authorities and central tax authorities.

Order no. 5.329/2.201/2023 approving this procedure was published in the Official Gazette no. 1116 on December 12, 2023.

9. Several procedures and statements regarding the reporting obligations of platform operators have been published

The following statements regarding the reporting obligations of platform operators have been published:

form (707) " Request for registration/changes/deregistration for platform operators" is available on the NAFA website at the link https://www.anaf.ro/Inreg-707/;
form (708) Notification on the choice of performing reporting procedures in Romania, according to the Tax Procedure Code;
form (F7000) concerning the information reported by each platform operator according to the Tax Procedure Code.

These forms have been published in the following normative acts: Order no. 1946/2023 (form 707), published in the Official Gazette no. 1098 of 6 December 2023; Order no. 2026/2023 (form 708), published in the Official Gazette no. 1144 of December 19, 2023; Order no.1996/2023 (form F7000), published in the Official Gazette no. 1167 of December 21, 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 further information on the topics covered please contact us. No responsibility is accepted for decisions or omissions following the use of the content of this newsletter.

Crowe România