I. Amendments of the Fiscal Code

In the Official Gazette no. 393 / 14.05.2020, GEO no. 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 was published.

Below we will present the main amendments:

1. The deadline of 25 May 2020 for the submission of the Unique Declaration, shall be extended until 30 June 2020 inclusive.

Thus, if the Unique declaration shall be submitted until 30 June 2020 inclusive, the following bonuses will be granted:

•  for the payment of annual income tax, pension and health contribution, for year 2019, a bonus of 5% of these amounts is granted, if all these fiscal obligations are extinguished by payment or compensation;
•  for the submission of the Unique declaration by electronical means a bonus of 5% is granted. This bonus is granted only if the above condition for the application of the bonus are also met.

The bonus is determined by the taxpayer and is presented separately in the Unique declaration, being subject to subsequent verification. The fiscal payable obligations are determined by decreasing the fiscal obligations due with the value of the bonus.

2. Bonuses for the income tax, pension and health contribution – starting with year 2021 a bonus of 10% of the annual income tax, pension and health contribution can be granted. The level of bonus, payment terms and conditions of granting are established by annual law of the state budget. The application procedure is established by order of the Minister of Public Finance.

3. The list of persons who have the quality of taxpayers / payers of income to the social health insurance system has been updated, with the legal persons who have the quality of employers or are assimilated to employers and who, according to the law, owe the social health insurance contribution, for natural persons who carry out an activity on the basis of an individual employment contract, an employment relationship or a special status provided by law, during the period of their suspension from office, in accordance with the law.

The monthly taxable base for computing the health contribution during the suspension of the job title will be the minimum gross salary per country, guaranteed for payment for the respective month.

The payment deadline of the health contribution is 25 inclusive of the next month following the one for which it is due. This provision is applicable only in case of natural persons who did not obtain income from salaries and assimilated to salaries during the month.

4. The VAT registration procedure is updated for the taxpayers who have the economic seat of activity in Romania. Therefore, the risk analysis shall be performed after the registration and this may lead to the cancelation of the VAT code together with all the subsequent consequences.

The VAT registration applications submitted and not resolved until the date of entry into force of the present emergency ordinance, will be resolved without the risk criteria analysis.

5. Facilities for employees exposed to the risk of infection.

During the emergency period, for the bonuses granted to employees, as a result of carrying out activities that involve direct contact with citizens and who are subject to the risk of infection pension, healts and asiguratory contributions will not be due, being however subject to income tax.

The provisions apply from the date of entry into force of the ordinance, for the amounts granted during the period of emergency decreed by law, paid until 30 June 2020, inclusive.

6. Discounts for the annual building tax or the monthly building tax

Local councils can adopt until 14 August 2020 decisions on certain tax reductions, as follows:

• reduction of the annual tax on non-residential buildings with a quota of up to 50% if during the state of emergency period, the owners / users of the buildings were obliged, according to the law, to completely interrupt their economic activity or hold the emergency certificate which states the partial interruption of economic activity;
•  exemption from the payment of the monthly tax on buildings due by concessionaires, tenants, holders of the right to administer or use a building public or private property of the state if, during the emergency period, the users of the building were obliged, according to law, to totally interrupt the economic activity.

In order to benefit from these reductions, the owners must submit the request by 15 September 2020 and meet certain conditions.

7. Exemption from the payment of the fee for the use of public advertising places

Until 31 August 2020 the rent for the occupation of the public domain with billboards will be due proportionaly to the period in which the panels were actually decorated. During the state of emergency, local councils may adopt decisions until 14 August 2020 on the exemption from the payment of the tax for the temporary use of public domain by users of areas that have been obliged, by law, to interrupt their economic activity completely or who hold an emergency certificate.

In order to benefit from these reductions, users must submit a request for the grant of the exemption to the local tax authority by 15 September 2020, together with an affidavit and supporting documents.

8. Fiscal amnesty - 4 cases are regulated:

•  outstanding main and accessory obligations as of 31 March 2020,
•  obligations arising from rectifying statements,
•  outstanding accessories at 31 March 2020 related to some main obligations paid by 31 March 2020,
•  obligations established by tax decision.

The cancellation of accessory obligations related to the main budgetary obligations, outstanding on 31 March 2020 inclusive, shall be effected if the following conditions are met:

•  All outstanding main budgetary obligations as of 31 March 2020 are extinguished by any means provided by the Fiscal Procedure Code until the date of submission of the request for cancellation of accessories, inclusive.
•  All the main budgetary obligations and accessories with payment deadlines between 1 April 2020 and the date the request for cancellation of the accessories is submitted, inclusive, are extinguished by any means provided by the Fiscal Procedure Code, until the date when the request for cancellation of accessories is submitted.
•  The debtor has submitted all the fiscal declarations, according to the fiscal vector, until the date request for cancellation of the accessories is submitted, inclusive. This condition is also considered fulfilled if, for the periods in which no fiscal declarations were submitted, the fiscal obligations were established, by decision, by the central fiscal body.
•  The debtor submits the request for cancellation of the accessories after the proper fulfilment of the conditions provided above, but not later than 15 December 2020 inclusive, under the sanction of forfeiture.
• Specifically, for cases of accessory obligations related to obligations established by tax decision, taxpayers who on the date of entry into force of the ordinance have an ongoing tax inspection may benefit from the cancellation of accessory obligations additionally established by the control body if they pay these obligations within the payment period laid down in the tax decision and if they submit the request for cancellation of the accessories within 90 days from the date of notification of the decision, regardless of whether this control has been completed by or after 15 December 2020.

II. Bonuses for the timely payment of corporate income tax / tax on income of micro-enterprises / specific tax for Q2 and Q3 2020

In the Official Gazette no. 396 / 14.05.2020, Law no. 54/2020 for the approval of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 33/2020 on some fiscal measures and the amendment of some normative acts was published.

Corporate income taxpayers, as well as those who pay tax on micro-enterprises income or specific tax, that perform timely payments of these direct taxes by 25 July 2020 inclusive, for the second quarter, and 25 October 2020 inclusive, for the third quarter, receive a bonus of 10 % calculated on the said tax.