Regulations concerning the Organisation of the Financial Management Audit

The Official Gazette no. 808 of 03 December 2012 published the Decision no. 1151 of 27/11/2012 approving the methodological regulations regarding the organization and exercise of the financial management audit.

The legislative act aims at implementing the regulations concerning the organization and exercise of the financial management audit in state-controlled economic entities such as autonomous administrations, national companies and entities, national research and development institutes.

The financial management audit has the following as its main objectives:

•   Ensuring the integrity of the patrimony of state-controlled entities;
•   Complying with legal provisions and internal regulations related to the entities in question;
•   Enhancing the efficiency in the use of assigned resources.

Please note: within 60 days of the effective date of the Government Decision no. 1151/2012, i.e. 03.12.2012, the heads of the economic operators are required to develop procedures and to ensure the organization and exercise of the financial management audit.

Amendments concerning the Organisation of the Administration of Large and Medium Taxpayers

The Official Gazette no. 809 of 03 December 2012 published the Order of the President of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (NAFA) no. 1822 of 26/11/2012 on the organization of the administration of medium taxpayers with the public finance authorities for medium taxpayers within the directorates general of the county and Bucharest public finance authorities and the Order of the President of NAFA no. 1823 of 26/11/2012 on the organization of the administration of large taxpayers.

The afore-mentioned Orders include lists of medium and large taxpayers that, starting from 01 January 2013, are managed by the public finance authorities for medium taxpayers and by the Directorate General for the Administration of Large Taxpayers.

Both the lists including medium and large taxpayers and the nominal lists of the secondary offices of medium and large taxpayers shall be updated and prepared by 30 November each year; they shall be approved by the Order of the President of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration and published in the Official Gazette of Romania and on the website of the Ministry of Public Finance – the portal of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration.

The Amendment of the Award of Public Procurement Contracts, Public Work Concession Contracts and Service Concession Contracts

The Official Gazette no. 827 of 10 December 2012 published the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 77/2012 amending and supplementing the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 34/2006 on the award of public procurement contracts, public work concession contracts and service concession contracts.

The Emergency Ordinance comes into force on 01 January 2013 and stipulates regulations aiming at making the public procurement system better and more flexible and mainly covers the following:

•   Changing the nature of the public procurement contract from a commercial contract to a contract similar to the administrative act under the law;
•   Adding to the list of contracting authorities any autonomous administration or national company/trading company with a capital fully or mostly owned by a contracting authority or another public law body;
•   The requirement on part of the contracting authority to send a SEAP notification in relation to every direct procurement with a value in excess of the RON equivalent of EUR 5,000, less VAT, within 10 days of the receipt of the supporting document underlying the procurement. The failure to meet said requirement shall be punished with fines ranging from RON 2,000 lei to RON 5,000;
•   The value thresholds above which the publication in the Official Journal of the European Union is mandatory are amended;
•   Details are given on the facts which are serious offences;
•   The deadline for tender assessment is extended to 25 days and its extension is notified to the economic operators within two days of the expiry of said 25 days;
•   The threshold for considering a tender price to be seemingly unusually low is changed from 85% of the estimated contract value to 70% of the estimated contract value;
•   The thresholds up to which the contracting authority may enforce the call for tender procedure are amended as follows:
  • Supply and service contracts - from EUR 125,000 to EUR 130,000;
  • Work contracts - from EUR 4,845,000 to EUR 5M.
•   The contracting authorities retain a share of the tender bond even when the complainant waives the appeal;
•   The minimum threshold of the tender bond is amended.

The Amendment of the Regulations on the Payments to the State Treasury made by Natural Persons

The Official Gazette no. 842 of 13 December 2012 published the Order of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Public Finance no. 1662/2012 amending and supplementing the methodological regulations regarding the mandatory information entered in the payment orders to the State Treasury, by means of which individual taxpayers make payments to the budgets making up the general consolidated budget via the transit account opened in favour of the Ministry of Public Finance and the information contained in the electronic payment message which is sent electronically by the originating credit institutions approved by way of the Order of the Minister of Public Finance no. 1.801/2011.

The Level of the Local Taxes, updated with the Inflation Level

According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Finance, on 12 December 2012, the Government Decision on the levels of taxable valuables, the local taxes and fees and other similar taxes and the fines applicable starting from 2013 was approved, according to article 292 of the Tax Code, as follows:

•   The authorities mention that, as required by said legal provisions, this decision updates the limits of the local taxes in relation to inflation levels for 2010-2012;
•   It is stated that the local authorities are the ones that determine the actual level of the taxes between the minimum and maximum limits, and even have the legal capacity to reduce their actual level up to 10% subject to the full payment of the local tax owed annually;
•   The amendment of the minimum and maximum limits does not cover the registered means of transport (cars, agricultural machinery, equipment used in construction, etc.).

A New Deadline for declaring/paying the Tax Debts for November

The Official Gazette no. 845 of 13 December 2012 published the Emergency Ordinance no. 84 of 12/12/2012 on the salaries of the staff from the public sector in 2013, the postponement of certain deadlines from the legislative acts and certain tax and budget measures.

This legislative act amends the Tax Procedure Code in the sense that:

•   The tax debts for which, according to the Tax Code or other laws governing them, the maturity and deadline for declaring occur on 25 December are due and shall be declared by 21 December;
•   If 21 December is a non-working day, the tax debts are due and shall be declared by the last working day prior to 21 December.

New Models for the Tax Forms Code 204 and Code 205 concerning the Income Tax

The Official Gazette no. 850 of 17 December 2012 published the Order no. 1913 of 06/12/2012 amending the Order of the President of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration no. 52/2012 approving the form and content of certain forms under Title III of Law no. 571/2003 regarding the Tax Code.

The Order approves the form and content of the following forms:

•   The annual income statement for associations with no legal personality and entities subject to tax transparency – code 204, to be submitted by 15 March of the following year by the shareholder designated in the contract to account for the performance of the liabilities of the association for income obtained by:
  • Associations with no legal personality established between natural persons or associations established between Romanian natural and legal persons acting as micro-enterprises within which income is derived from independent activities, including related activities, or from agricultural activities, for which the net income is determined according to an actual income system;
  • Natural persons who derive income from an activity carried out in a form of organization with a legal personality (SPRL) established under a special law and subject to tax transparency.
•   An informative statement on the withholding tax and the gains/losses according to the income beneficiaries – code 205, to be submitted by the last day of February, including for the expired year by:
  • Income payers who are required to compute, withhold and transfer the tax on income subject to withholding tax;
  • Intermediaries, investment management companies in the case of redeeming equity securities in open investment funds or other income payers, as appropriate, for the gains/losses of natural persons in relation to transactions involving securities other than shares and transferable securities for closed companies.
  • Payers of income from salaries.

Amendments concerning Certain Tax Regulations

The Official Gazette no. 852 of 17 December 2012 published Order no. 1708 of 14/12/2012 amending and supplementing certain orders of the Minister of Public Finance.

To that effect, the following amendments and additions are made:

•   The regulations on the procedure for granting the VAT customs payment deferral certificate and the release of the security for the import of goods, as follows:
  • By 31 December 2016 inclusive, no payment shall be made to the customs authorities by taxable persons registered for VAT who have obtained a payment deferral certificate;
  • The payment deferral certificate shall be issued for the period indicated by the applicant, which may not exceed 31 December 2016.
•   The instructions for enforcing the VAT exemption stipulated by Order no. 2222/2006 mainly for: exports of goods, intra-Community supply of goods, provision of services such as transport and transport related services directly connected with exports and imports of goods, etc.;
•   The regulations implementing the value added tax exemptions for the international traffic of goods as stipulated by Order 2218/2006.

The amendments and additions of this legislative act come into force on 01 January 2013.

Amendments concerning the Classification of Tax Liabilities paid into the Single Account

The Official Gazette no. 856 of 18 December 2012 published Order no. 1951 of 13/12/2012 amending and supplementing Appendix no. 1 to the Order of the President of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration no. 1.294/2007 on taxes, contributions and other amounts representing tax debts, which are paid by taxpayers into a single account.

Thus, the tax debts paid by taxpayers into a single account are supplemented with the following:

• The tax on profit/prepayments into the annual profit tax account, as owed by Romanian legal persons other than those referred to in section 6, as well as legal persons with the registered office in Romania, established under the EU law;
• The tax on profit owed by foreign legal persons, other than those referred to in section 6 or prepayments into the annual profit tax account, as owed by foreign legal persons conducting business through a permanent establishment in Romania;
• The tax on income from prizes;
• Payments from the net profit of autonomous administrations;
• The tax on income from gambling;
• Dividends to be transferred by companies and national companies and mostly state-owned companies.

Amendments concerning the Sector of Tax Warehouses

The Official Gazette no. 857 of 18 December 2012 published the Emergency Ordinance no. 87 of 12/12/2012 amending and supplementing Law no. 571/2003 on the Tax Code.

The Ordinance stipulates a number of amendments and additions in terms of the regime of tax warehouses, regulations adopted so as to remove the causes leading to the start of infringement procedures in the field of tax warehouses for the storage of excisable products and mainly focuses on the application for a permit as a tax warehouse and the permitting and storage conditions. The provisions take effect from 01 January 2013.

The Amendment of Certain Tax Regulations

The Official Gazette no. 857 of 18 December 2012 published Order no. 1690 of 12/12/2012 amending and supplementing certain accounting regulations.

The Order amends and supplements the regulations contained in the Order of the Minister of Public Finance no. 3.055/2009 approving the accounting regulations in accordance with European Directives and it mainly refers to:

•   Amendments concerning the subsidies that shall also comprise assets received as a transfer from customers in the form of tangible assets or cash meant for the procurement or construction of tangible assets, for the connection to an electricity grid, a gas or water network or the provision of continuous access to certain goods or services and the debt corresponding to the value of said assets shall be registered in account 478 “Deferred income for the transfer of assets from customers”;
•   New accounts and related functions are added, i.e. account 1018 “Patrimony of national R & D institutes” and account 478 “Deferred income for the transfer of assets from customers”.

Likewise, the legislative act amends and supplements the Order of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Public Finance no. 1.286/2012 approving the accounting regulations in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards applicable to trading companies with transferable securities admitted to trading on a regulated market and mainly relates to additions regarding the registration in the books of the results of the re-consideration of operations resulting from the transition from the accounting regulations compliant with Directive IV of the European Economic Communities, as approved by the Order of the Minister of Public Finance no. 3.055/2009, to the accounting regulations in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards.