Legislative summary: GEO 48/2020 new financial-fiscal measures

21 APR 2020

Please be informed that Thursday, April 16, 2020 was published in Official Gazette no. 319 Emergency Ordinance no. 48/2020 regarding some financial-fiscal measures. The provisions of this normative act apply from April 16, 2020.

The main legislative changes refer to:

VAT refund with subsequent verification

The VAT requested for reimbursement through the negative VAT statement with reimbursement option, submitted within the legal deadline, is reimbursed by the central tax body, with the subsequent tax inspection to be decided on the basis of a risk analysis. This provision also applies to the statements with negative amounts of VAT with reimbursement option under the settlement charge and for which the VAT refund decision was not issued until April 16, 2020.
The reimbursement with subsequent verification does not apply for:
- the statements with negative amount of VAT with reimbursement option for which the fiscal inspection was started before April 16, 2020;
- the statements with negative amounts of VAT with reimbursement option, submitted by the big and medium taxpayers, which will be solved after the anticipated fiscal inspection, if:
  - the taxpayer has in the tax record facts that are sanctioned as offenses;
  - the central fiscal body, based on the information held, finds that there is a risk of an undue repayment;
  - for the respective taxpayer, the voluntary liquidation procedure was initiated or the insolvency procedure was opened, except for those for which a reorganization plan was confirmed, under the conditions of the special law;
the statements with negative amounts of VAT with reimbursement option, submitted by taxpayers other than the big and medium ones, which will be solved after the anticipated fiscal inspection, if:
- the taxpayer has in the tax record facts that are sanctioned as offenses;
- the central fiscal body, based on the information held, finds that there is a risk of an undue repayment;
- for the respective taxpayer, the voluntary liquidation procedure was initiated or the insolvency procedure was opened, except for those for which a reorganization plan was confirmed, under the conditions of the special law;
- the taxpayer deposits the first payment with negative amounts of VAT with the option of repayment, after registration for VAT purposes;
- the balance of the negative VAT amount requested for reimbursement comes from more than 12 monthly reporting periods, respectively 4 quarterly reporting periods.

Postponing the deadline for filing the financial statements for 2019

For the submission of the annual financial statements related to the financial year 2019, respectively of the annual accounting reports concluded on December 31, 2019, the deadlines provided in art. 36 paragraph (1) and (3) and art. 37 of the Accounting Law no. 82/1991, republished, as subsequently amended and supplemented, is extended until July 31, 2020 inclusive.

Payment scheduling facilities

Interest and penalties are not calculated and not due, according to the Fiscal Procedure Code, for the late payment of the rates from the unpaid instalment schedules until the 30-day deadline has been reached since the end of the state of emergency. In this case, the competent fiscal body, ex-officio, restores the staggering schedule, respecting the approved staggering period. The new scheduling schedule is communicated to the debtor by the decision of the fiscal body.
The conditions for maintaining the validity of the payment instalments granted according to the law are suspended, until the 30 days from the end of the state of emergency.
For the obligations that represent a condition for maintaining the validity of the payment facilities, the taxpayers can request the modification of the payment instalment, provided that the application is submitted until the expiration of the 30-day term from the cessation of the state of emergency.
The measures of forced execution, by summons and by the valorisation of the goods at auction, of the budgetary debts are suspended or not, except the forced executions that are applied for the recovery of the budgetary debts established by definitive judicial decisions pronounced in criminal matters, arising from the commission of offenses .
The deadlines for prescribing the right of the fiscal body to establish tax receivables and to demand forced execution, as well as that of the taxpayer / payer to request the refund of tax debts, are suspended or do not start to run until the 30-day deadline at the date of cessation of the state of emergency.

Specific tax facilities

The taxpayers obliged to pay the specific tax for certain activities, according to Law no. 170/2016 regarding the specific tax for some activities, for the year 2020, does not owe specific tax for the period in which they interrupt the activity totally or partially during the period of emergency state decreed.
For the application of the facility, the taxpayers recalculate, correspondingly, the specific tax established according to Law no. 170/2016, for the year 2020, by dividing the specific annual tax by 365 calendar days and multiplying by the number of days for the period of the calendar year in which the activity took place. The period in which the taxpayers carried out the activity is determined by subtracting from the number of 365 calendar days the number of days for the period in which they interrupted the activity in whole or in part during the decreed state of emergency.
In order to benefit from the specific tax exemption, the taxpayers must fulfil the following conditions cumulatively:
- discontinue the activity in whole or in part and hold the certificate for emergency situations issued by the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment;
- is not insolvent according to the information available on the website of the National Office of the Trade Register.

Other amendments to the Fiscal Code

Deduction of at most 20% of the micro-enterprise tax of the amounts granted by micro-enterprises in the form of sponsorships to public institutions and authorities, including specialized bodies of public administration without the obligation to register the respective beneficiary entities in the Register of cult entities / units. The deduction is made only on the basis of the sponsorship contract;
The advantages in kind granted to natural persons who make income from wages and assimilated to wages as a result of the occupation considered by the employer / payer essential for carrying out the activity and which are present in preventive isolation at the workplace or in specially dedicated areas in which no outside persons have access, for a period established by the employer / payer, in case of establishing the state of siege or emergency, according to the law are not taxable from the point of view of the income tax and of the wage contributions;
For the technical unemployment benefits due to the employees and other professionals and for the free days allowances granted to the parents for the supervision of the child / children, the fiscal facilities are not granted. Basically, in the field of constructions does not benefit from the exemptions provided by the Fiscal Code (exemptions for the income tax and the health contribution and the reduction of the social insurance contribution by 3.75%) for the allowances granted from the unemployment insurance budget or the state budget received, starting with April 2020, during the state of emergency;
The effective payment of VAT is not made to the customs bodies by the taxable persons registered for VAT purposes according to art. 316 of the same law, which imports medicines, protective equipment and machines for the production of protective masks, other medical devices or equipment and sanitary materials, which can be used in the prevention, limitation, treatment and control of COVID-19, during its period established the state of emergency and within the next 30 calendar days from the date of cessation of the state of emergency. The same facility also applies to importers holding end-user authorization for the import of completely denatured ethyl alcohol, used for the production of disinfectants, during the period for which the state of emergency was established. The tax related to these imports is highlighted by the importers in the VAT return (form 300), both as collected tax and as deductible tax. The list of goods for which the VAT is not actually paid to the customs authorities is provided in the annex to GEO no. 48/2020.

If you have questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.