Law concerning the specific tax for certain activities

Starting with January 1st, 2017, the law sets a new annual tax, by way of derogation from the legislation on the corporate tax, entitled the specific tax for certain activities, applicable to the taxpayers-legal persons that conduct main and/or secondary activities in the following domains:

• 5510 – Hotels and similar accommodation;
• 5520 – Holiday and other short-stay accommodation;
• 5530 – Camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks;
• 5590 – Other accommodation;
• 5610 – Restaurants and mobile food service activities;
• 5621 – Event catering activities;
• 5629 – Other food service activities;
• 5630 – Beverage serving activities;

The Romanian legal persons that, on the December 31st of the previous year, cumulatively met the following conditions, must pay the specific tax:

• They had one of the activities listed above recorded in the articles of incorporation, as main or secondary activity;
• They are not undergoing liquidation.

The taxpayers that are incorporated during the year and that have one of the activities listed above recorded in the articles of incorporation, as main or secondary activity, shall pay the specific tax starting with the year following the incorporation.

This law provides that, for the taxpayers that perform several of the listed activities, the specific tax shall be set by summing up the tax for each activity.

The computation formulas for the specific tax are provided in the annexes to this law, for each activity; the statement and payment of the specific tax are performed half-yearly, by the 25th of the month following each semester.

The Romanian legal persons that pay corporate tax shall communicate this application by March 31st of the year for which the specific tax is paid.

Amendment of the legislation regarding the authorisation of natural persons

Law no. 182/2016 amends the legislation on the authorisation of the independent activities conducted by the natural persons. It must be mentioned that the economic activities whose organisation and authorisation are regulated under special laws, and should said laws not provide otherwise, must register with the Trade Register, as a prior obligation, in order to be authorised by the competent authorities established under the provisions of the specific laws.

This regulatory document introduced the provision according to which, if there are no economic activities performed at the registered office, the economic undertaking holder (self-employed person, sole proprietorship, family-owned business) may submit a statement to this end, without requiring the acceptance of the lodgers association.

The law sets that the self-employed person shall have a maximum of 5 classes of activities, as provided by the NACE code, in its object of activity and shall conduct said activity alone or alongside a maximum of 3 persons employed under individual employment agreements. The sole proprietorship shall have a maximum of 10 classes of activities, as provided by the NACE code, in its object of activity and shall conduct said activity alone or alongside a maximum of 8 persons employed under individual employment agreements.

For the students that wish to start a business, the legislation provides that, under certain conditions, they may be exempted from paying the taxes for the registration and authorisation of a self-employed person or sole proprietorship.

This law enters into force within 90 days of its publication in the Official Journal.

Order regarding the income resulted from leasing activities

Order 2902/2016 is issued for the application of the provisions of art. 83 (2) of the Tax Code, according to which the natural persons that earn income from the leasing of assets, from more than 5 lease agreements at the end of the tax year, shall qualify this income as income from independent activities and shall subject it to the rules for computing the net income for this category, starting with the following tax year.

The persons with more than 5 agreements establish the annual net income in an actual system, based on the accounting data, and have the following obligations:

• Managing the accounting records in compliance with Order no. 170/2015 of the Ministry of Public Finance;
• Filling in the Tax register;
• Submitting form 220 “Statement regarding the estimated income” by January 31st of the following year;
• Submitting form 200 “Statement regarding the income earned from Romania” by May 25th of the year following the one during which the income was earned.

The tax body shall issue a single form 260 - “Notice of assessment for advance payments”, based on the submitted documents, for all the lease agreements.

Registration procedure for the agreements with non-resident persons

Order no. 2994 / 2016 of the NAFA Chairperson, of October 20th, 2016, is issued for the registration procedure of the agreements/documents concluded between Romanian legal persons, resident natural persons, foreign legal persons that conduct activities in Romania, at the permanent headquarters/ designated permanent office and foreign legal persons or non-resident natural persons.

The order is issued for the application of the provisions of art. 8 (8) of the Tax Code. According to these provisions, Romanian legal persons, resident natural persons and foreign legal persons that conduct activities in Romania, at the permanent headquarters/ designated permanent office, beneficiaries of services in the fields of constructions, assembly works, supervision works, consultancy, technical support and any other activities performed by foreign legal persons or natural persons that are not residents of Romania, must register the agreements concluded with said partners, with the competent tax bodies; the agreements concluded for activities performed outside of Romania do not represent the object of the registration.

The agreements shall be registered by submitting form 017 “Statement for the registration of agreements/documents that justify the actual service provisions on the territory of Romania, initial/supplementary (related), concluded with foreign legal persons or non-resident natural persons”, within 30 days of the conclusion of said documents.

Clarifications in the national case-law regarding the work performed by an employee whose individual labour agreement is suspended

Under Decision no. 20/2016, the High Court of Cassation and Justice (panel for the settlement of legal issues) decided that the provisions of art. 260 (1) e) of the Employment Code, according to which “having 5 persons work without individual labour agreements represents an offence under the provisions of art. 16 (1)” are also applicable if the employees work on the grounds of a suspended individual labour agreement.

In the future, if, following certain inspections, the Territorial Labour Inspectorates find that there are up to 5 employees working even though their individual labour agreements are suspended, said Inspectorates shall be able to impose a fine in the amount of 10,000 RON to 20,000 RON on said employer, for each identified employee.