The amnesty law

By means of Law 209/2015 – concerning the annulment of certain tax obligations, several taxpayer categories shall benefit from tax amnesty. Thus, this legal act annuls, for the tax periods prior to 01 July 2015:

• The differences in the main tax obligations and the related ancillaries, established as a result of the reconsideration/reclassification of an activity as dependent activity;
• The differences in the main tax obligations and/or the related ancillaries, established as a result of the reclassification of amounts representing the indemnity received, for the secondment period, by the employees that conducted their activity on the territory of a different country;
• The differences in the VAT corresponding to the revenues resulted from intellectual property rights and the related ancillaries, established as a result of exceeding the threshold and not registering as VAT payer;
• CASS (contribution to the health insurance) owed by persons for whom the monthly CASS computation base is lower than the minimum gross basic salary per country;

According to the provisions of this law, the annulment of all previously mentioned tax obligations shall be performed ex officio by the competent tax body, by issuing an annulment decision for tax obligations, which shall be communicated to the taxpayer, so that the latter does not have to take any steps towards having the tax obligations annulled.

This act also regulates the situation in which the tax bodies issued payment decisions for the tax obligations that were annulled by means of this law. Thus, if the competent tax body issued, but did not communicate the notice of assessment, it shall no longer communicate said notice and the tax obligations shall be deducted from the payer analytical records, on the grounds of the deduction slip.

Law no. 209/2015¹ on the annulment of certain tax liabilities was published in the Official Journal no. 540 of 20 July 2015 and shall enter into force on 23 July.

The amendment of certain deadlines regarding the legal status of contraventions

This law amends certain deadlines provided for in Government Ordinance no. 2/2001 on the legal status of contraventions.

Law no. 179/2015 on the approval of Government Ordinance no. 5/2015 for amending certain deadlines provided for in Government Ordinance no. 2/2001 on the legal status of contraventions.²

Namely, the execution of legal sanctions for misdemeanours is subjected to limitation if the report of findings in regards to the contraventions was not communicated to the infringer within the maximum period of two months following the sanction application date.

Order concerning the organisation of the management activity of non-resident taxpayers that do not have permanent headquarters on the territory of Romania

This order supplements the provisions of Order no. 2.157/2006 of the Minister of Public Finance, concerning the organisation of the management activity of non-resident taxpayers that do not have permanent headquarters on the territory of Romania, by adding the competence regarding tax registration and, if applicable, the one regarding the forced execution of taxes owed by the non-resident taxpayers - legal persons that do not have permanent headquarters on the territory of Romania and which organise and operate the gambling activity in Romania, competences that are granted to the Tax Administration for non-resident taxpayers, within the Bucharest General Regional Directorate of Public Finance.

Order no. 775/2015 for supplementing Order no. 2.157/2006 of the Minister of Public Finance, regarding the organisation of the management activity of non-resident taxpayers that do not have permanent headquarters on the territory of Romania.³

Order for the approval of the Accounting reporting system of economic operators and for the amendment of certain accounting regulations

− specific accounting reporting requirements are established for each economic operator class: microenterprises, small, medium-sized and large enterprises, thus classified based on the following indicators: turnover, total assets and average number of employees;
− the obligation to stamp the accounting reporting forms is eliminated.

At the same time, this Order brings amendments and additions to the Accounting regulations approved by means of Order 1802/2014, mainly concerning the:

− Size criteria regarding the classification of companies in microenterprises, small, medium-sized and large enterprises;
− Explanations regarding the function of certain accounts, such as: 345 "Finished goods", 347 "Agricultural goods", 348 "Price differences on goods", 361 "Biological assets in the form of inventory items", 368 "Price differences on biological assets in the form of inventory items" and 711 "Revenues associated with the costs of the inventory goods".

Order 773/2015 for the approval of the Accounting reporting system of economic operators at 30 June 2015 and for the amendment of certain accounting regulations.⁴

Ordinance concerning the regulation of certain fiscal and budgetary measures and the amendment and completion of certain legal acts

• This legal act bring a series of regulations in various areas of interest, of which we mention the following ones as more important:
• Eliminating the obligation to use the stamp for certain categories of persons or enterprises;
• Introducing provisions related to the exchange of data for tax purposes, between the Romanian tax authorities and the tax authorities of states with which Romania concluded legal instruments of international law and which are not EU member states;
• The introduction of new provisions regarding the definition of outstanding tax obligations;
• The introduction of new provisions regarding the settlement of VAT to be refunded, for the taxpayers falling under the provisions of the legislation concerning insolvency;
• The amendments and additions brought to the forced execution procedure conducted in accordance with the Tax Procedure Code regulations;
• The elimination of the obligation to pay the extra-judicial stamp duty, in the case of the taxpayers that request the issuance of certificates or other documents from the Tax Administration Agency;
• The amendments brought to the obligations concerning the use of tax electronic cash registers;

Ordinance no. 17/2015 concerning the regulation of certain fiscal and budgetary measures and the amendment and completion of certain legal acts.⁵

Law concerning the amendment and completion of certain legal acts related to the registration with the Trade Register

This law regulates the situations in which the dissolution of a company may not be ruled by the Trade Register, ex officio or at the request of any interested person, as follows:

• The company no longer has statutory bodies or these can no longer assemble;
• The shareholder(s) disappeared or has/have no known domicile or residence;
• The conditions regarding the headquarters are no longer fulfilled, including as a consequence of the expiration of the document certifying the right of use on the premises meant to be used as headquarters;
• The company activity ceased or was not restarted following the temporary inactivity period, notified to the tax bodies and registered with the Trade Register, a period that may not exceed 3 years from the date of registration with the Trade Register;
• The company did not complete its share capital, under the terms of the law;
• The company did not submit the annual financial statements and, as applicable, the consolidated annual financial statements or the accounting reports to the Ministry of Public Finance territorial units, within the deadline provided by the law, should the delay exceed 60 business days;
• The company did not submit to the Ministry of Public Finance territorial units, within the deadline provided by the law, the statement according to which it did not conduct any activity starting from the incorporation, should the delay exceed 60 business days.

Another important amendment is represented by the registration of natural and legal persons with the Trade Register of Romania and the assigning of a unique European identifier to said persons, as well as other data established by means of the Order of the minister of justice.

Law no. 152 of 18 June 2015 concerning the amendment and completion of certain legal acts related to the registration with the Trade Register.⁶