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Amendment of the Labor Code
Government Emergency Ordinance no. 53/2017 for amending and supplementing Law no. 53/2003 - Labor Code. It includes:
The importance of concluding the individual employment agreement based on the consent of the parties, in written form, in Romanian, prior to the beginning of the employee's activity.
The employer is obliged to keep a copy of the individual employment agreement for the employees who work in the respective place (including in the case of work sites and other organized work places of the employer);
The addendum for the amendment of the elements of the employment agreement shall be concluded before performing the amendment, except in cases where such an amendment is expressly provided by law or the applicable collective employment agreement, instead of within 20 working days of the date of the amendment, as was provided before the legislative change;
The amendment by addendum of the elements of the individual employment agreement stipulated in Art. 3 para. (2) letters a), d) - l) of Government Decision 500/2011 shall be transmitted to the General Register of Employees prior to performing the changes, instead of within 19 working days of the date of the amendment, as was provided before the legislative change.
The employer has the obligation to keep in the workplace the daily work records for each employee, highlighting the starting and ending hours of the work program, and to allow the checking of such records by labor inspectors, whenever requested to do so;
The following deeds constitute contraventions and are punished accordingly:
a) Accepting a person for work without concluding an individual employment agreement, the sanction being a fine of 20,000 lei for each person identified. The limit of 5 persons has been abolished, the fine being applied regardless of the number of persons admitted to work without concluding an employment agreement;
b) Accepting a person for work without transmitting the employment relationship report to the General Register of Employees at the latest on the day before the start of the activity, the sanction being a fine of 20,000 lei for each person identified;
c) Accepting an employee for work during the period for which the individual employment agreement of that employee is suspended, the sanction being a fine of 20,000 lei for each person identified;
d) Accepting an employee for work outside the working hours established under part-time individual employment agreements, the sanction being a fine of 10,000 lei for each person identified;
e) Failure to keep in the workplace a copy of the individual employment agreement for the employees who carry out the activity in that place, the sanction being a fine of 10,000 lei.
The contravening person may pay within up to 48 hours from the date of the conclusion of the protocol or, as the case may be, from the date of the communication thereof, half of the fine provided for in the above points a) - d), the labor inspector having to mention such a possibility in the protocol;
In the event of establishing that one of the deeds mentioned in the above points a) - c) has been committed, the labor inspector shall order, as a complementary sanction, the suspension of the activity of the organized work place, subject to control, according to the suspension procedure established by the Labor Inspection;
The employer can resume its activity only after paying the fine and after demonstrating to have remedied the faults for which it has been sanctioned, namely:
a) conclusion of the individual employment agreement;
b) transmission of the employment relationship report to the General Register of Employees;
c) cessation of the suspension of the individual employment agreement;
d) setting-up and payment of social benefit obligations and income tax related to the salary incomes accruing to the worker for the period during which he/she carried out the undeclared activity.
The admission for work purposes of a person who is in a situation of illegal stay in Romania, knowing that he/she is a victim of trafficking in human beings, constitutes a criminal offense and is punishable by imprisonment from 3 months to 2 years or the payment of a fine. -
Establishing the upper limit of the monthly child-raising benefit
Emergency Ordinance no. 55/2017 amending and supplementing the Government Ordinance on child-raising leave and indemnity (benefit).
Starting with the rights related to the month of September 2017, the monthly child-raising benefit may not exceed 8,500 RON. -
Amendment of the law on the protection of persons with disabilities
Emergency Ordinance no. 60/2017 amending Law no. 448/2006 on the protection and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities.
As of September 1st, 2017, employers with at least 50 employees who do not employ persons with disabilities in a percentage of at least 4% of the total number of employees, shall pay monthly to the state budget a sum representing the national gross minimum basic salary, multiplied by the number of workplaces that did not employ persons with disabilities.
The employer's option to purchase products or services achieved through the activity of persons with disabilities employed in authorized protected units has been removed. -
Mandatory electronic submission of statements
Order of ANAF (National Agency for Fiscal Administration) president no. 2326 of August 2nd, 2017, on tax returns to be mandatorily transmitted by electronic means or by electronic remote transmission systems.
Starting with the tax obligations statement related to the month of January 2018, the following statements shall be transmitted electronically via the Internet, to the website of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration:
a) 100 "Statement on the payment obligations to the state budget";
b) 101 "Statement on income tax";
c) 120 "Excise taxes detailed account";
d) 205 "Informative statement regarding the tax deducted at source, gambling revenues and gains/losses from investments, by income beneficiaries";
e) 207 "Informative statement regarding the tax deducted at source/exempted income, by non-resident income beneficiaries";
f) 208 "Informative statement regarding tax on income resulting from the transfer of real estate property from the private estate";
g) 300 "Value added tax return";
h) 301 "Special value added tax return";
i) 307 "Statement regarding the amounts resulting from the adjustment/ correction of adjustments/ settlement of the value added tax";
j) 311 "Statement regarding the value added tax collected due by the taxable persons whose registration code for value added tax purposes has been cancelled according to Article 316 par. (11) letters a) - e) g) or letter h) of Law no 227/2015 on the Tax Code";
k) 390 VIES "Recapitulative Statement of Intra-Community Deliveries/ Procurement/ Supplies";
l) 394 "Informative statement regarding the deliveries/ supplies and procurements made on the national territory by persons registered for VAT purposes";
m) 710 "Rectifying Statement". -
Draft ordinance on the implementation of the VAT split payment system
The provisions of the draft Emergency Ordinance on the VAT split payment system should apply as optional as of September 1st, 2017, and as mandatory as of January 1st, 2018.
Taxpayers who opt for applying the system during the period October 1st, 2017, to December 31st, 2017, will have the possibility to benefit from certain tax incentives.
The VAT split payment system will involve:
• The opening by taxable persons registered for VAT purposes of a special VAT account with the Treasury or to the bank where they have opened their other accounts;
• The VAT invoiced by suppliers will be charged exclusively through the special VAT account, which must be communicated by them to their clients. Exceptions from this rule are payments made in cash or by using credit/debit cards or cash substitutes, in which situations taxable persons have the obligation to transfer to the VAT account the VAT amount within maximum 3 working days from collecting it;
• Amounts in the VAT account can be used only in order to pay the VAT to suppliers, respectively the VAT owed to the state budget;
• Amounts in the VAT account cannot be transferred to another account by the holder, except under certain conditions and with the approval of ANAF. Cash withdrawals are forbidden;
• The contraventions applicable in the event of non-compliance with these rules are regulated, which may amount to up to 50% of the VAT not transferred into the special account.
The draft ordinance was approved by the Government of Romania and is to be published in the Official Journal.
We will return with a separate Tax Alert on this topic.
Any presented information is general and is not meant to address the specific conditions of a particular individual or legal person. Although we try to provide accurate and up-to-date information, there is no warranty that such information is accurate at the time of its receipt or that it continues to be accurate. No action should be taken based on this information without relevant professional assistance following a careful examination of the circumstances that are typical of a particular state of affairs.
