Law no. 207/2015 on the New Tax Procedural Code was published on 23 July 2015 and shall enter into force as of next year. To that effect, we hereby present the main amendments:

The interest level drops from 0.03% to 0.02% / day of delay;

The penalty level drops from 0.02% to 0.01% / day of delay;

The principle of "in dubio contra fiscum" shall be inserted, which states that, when, after applying the rules of interpretation, the provisions of the tax law remain unclear, they shall be interpreted in favor of the taxpayer;

It has been regulated that, for the main tax obligations either not reported or incorrectly reported by the entity and determined by the tax inspection authority by taxation decisions, a non-reporting penalty of 0.08% / day shall be owed;

The non-reporting penalty has been established as not removing the obligation to pay the interest, but only the late payment interest;

If the main tax obligations are set by the tax inspection authority as a result of the failure to file the tax declaration, only the non-reporting penalty shall be applied, without also enforcing the civil sanction for not submitting the declaration;

For any overdue obligations not paid to the local budgets, late interest shall be owed and its level shall drop from 2% to 1%/month or fraction of a month;

The terms of 2, 4 or 6 months shall be introduced for settling any applications from the taxpayers and shall even apply to VAT refund applications;

The situations in which a taxpayer may be declared inactive shall be extended, which gives rise to the applicability of the Tax Code on the effects of inactivity, i.e. the expenditure and VAT on acquisitions may not be deducted;

The limitation period shall change, meaning that it starts from the 1st of July (formerly it was the 1st of January) of the year following the one for which the tax obligation is due, which leads to an extension of the period in which the tax body may conduct a tax inspection;

The period subject to the tax inspection begins at the end of the previously inspected period, subject to observing the limitation period, for all taxpayers, not just large ones; the provision according to which the tax inspection for taxpayers not falling within the category of large taxpayers is conducted on the receivables arising in the last three tax years has been repealed;

The duration of the tax inspection shall be set by the tax inspection body and may be 180, 90 or 45 days, depending on the category of taxpayer in question;

The taxpayer has the right to submit a written point of view on the findings of the tax inspection body no later than five business days from the date of conclusion of tax inspection (previously, the term was three business days);

The duration of the unannounced check shall be set by the manager of the inspection body, according to the objectives of the inspection and may not be greater than 30 days;

The appeal shall be filed within 45 days of the notification of the tax administrative act, under penalty of losing this right (previously, the term was 30 days), and the appellant may ask the competent settlement body to verbally defend the appeal;

The suspension of the execution in relation to the tax administrative act shall cease as of right and without any further formality if the action for the annulment of the tax administrative act is not filed within 60 days of the date of notification of the decision settling the appeal;

In case the appeal is not settled within 6 months from the date of filing of the appeal, the appellant may go to the competent administrative court for the annulment of the act. In calculating this term, the periods in which the appeal settlement procedure is suspended shall not be considered;

The fines for legal persons not falling within the category of medium and large taxpayers have been reduced down to the level of those applicable to individuals for most offences; for example, the failure to file the tax statements shall be penalised as follows: for large and medium taxpayers, the fine shall range between RON 1,000 and RON 5,000; and for individuals and other legal entities, the fine shall range between RON 500 and RON 1,000;

The Tax Certificate shall be issued within three business days from the date of submission of the application, compared to the previous five business days;

Additional provisions shall be inserted on determining the joint and several liability;

There shall be joint liability with the debtor for certain persons, referred to in Article 25, as regards the main and ancillary tax obligations of the period for which they acted in the capacity that was at the basis of the joint liability;

The liability of these individuals shall be determined by a decision issued by the relevant tax authority for each individual or legal entity, but, before issuing a decision, the tax authority shall organize a hearing of the person, and the latter shall be entitled to present a written point of view, within five business days of the hearing. The decision to give rise to the joint liability, issued without hearing the person whose liability has been involved, shall be void;

The tariffs for the per-ruling shall change from the equivalent in RON of EUR 1,000, as per the exchange rate communicated by the NBR on the day of the payment, as follows:

• the tariff shall be EUR 5,000, as per the exchange rate announced by the NBR for the day of the payment, for large taxpayers;
• the tariff shall be EUR 3,000, as per the exchange rate announced by the NBR for the day of the payment, for the other categories of taxpayers/payers.

The central tax authority shall waive the establishment of the tax receivable and shall not issue a taxation decision in case the main tax receivable is lower than RON 20; in case the decision covers several main tax receivables, the ceiling will apply to the aggregate of such receivables;

The offsetting rules shall also apply to the negative VAT amount requested for refund by a tax group representative; thus, it may be offset against the tax obligations of the tax group members in the following order:

The tax obligations of the tax group representative;

The tax obligations of the other tax group members, as chosen by the central tax authority;

Provisions have been added on the method of determining the interest due for taxes administered by the central tax authority for which the tax period is annual;

Precautionary measures may also be taken before the issue of the debt security, but if the debt security has not been issued and communicated within six months of the date when the precautionary measures are ordered, these shall cease as of right; in exceptional cases, this period may be extended up to a year by the competent tax authority, under a relevant decision. The tax authority is required to issue the decision lifting the precautionary measures no later than two days after the expiry of the six-month or one-year period, as applicable, and, in the case of attachment, to release the guarantee.