In brief
Government Ordinance no. 30/2017 for amending and supplementing Law no. 207/2015 on Fiscal Procedure Code was published in the Official Gazette no. 7082017.
In detail
Government Ordinance no. 30/2017 amends and supplements Law no. 207/2015 on the Fiscal Procedure Code. The most significant changes are detailed below.
The obligation to present documents in Romanian language or together with certified translations
One of the amendments provided by the Ordinance expressly stipulates a legal sanction in the event of petitions, justifying documents, certificates or deeds written in another language being submitted to the tax authorities without an accompanying authorised Romanian translation. The ordinance prescribes that, at the request of a fiscal body, the taxpayer has to submit certified translations for all the aforesaid documents. Failure to comply will result in the documents not being accepted.
The fiscal charge report
Another important amendment has been introduced under which taxpayers which conduct a liberal profession are held liable for the tax obligations due as a result of the performance of the liberal activity with its asset dedicated to that activity. The fiscal body will initiate action for liability on the taxpayer’s other assets only if the dedicated assets are not sufficient for accounts receivable collection.
Joint liability
A new case of joint liability with the debtor has been provided. Thus, the issuer of a letter of guarantee / insurance policy or the institution which acknowledges the letter of guarantee / insurance policy will be held jointly liable with the debtor if the latter does not transfer into the budget accounts the guaranteed amounts at the request of the fiscal body.
Furthermore, for the outstanding tax liabilities of a debtor for which bankruptcy has been requested, the persons who, in bad faith, caused the accrual of such obligations or avoided their payment are to be held jointly liable.
Communication of the fiscal administrative act
A set of amendments regarding the communication of the fiscal administrative act has been regulated. Thus, the Ordinance provides a new communication method for fiscal administrative acts, namely their handing over by the fiscal body employees, under signature, at the taxpayer fiscal address. If the tax payer is not found at the fiscal address or refuses to receive the fiscal administrative act, the fiscal body will display a notice on the intended recipient’s door. Taxpayers must present themselves at the fiscal body headquarters within 15 days of the notices being displayed in order to receive tax administrative acts, otherwise such deeds are considered communicated at the elapsing of that 15-day deadline period.
Special provisions for the fiscal registration of non-residents
Credit institutions have to request that the fiscal bodies issue the fiscal identification number for non-resident persons or for legal entities which do not have a unique taxpayer reference number at the moment in which they want to open an account or to rent a safe deposit box.
Declaration of secondary offices
Government Ordinance no. 30/2017 brings amendments regarding the declaration of secondary offices. The taxpayer has to declare at the central fiscal body the setting up of a secondary office within 30 days as of: a) the registration date in the Trade Registry or in other registries in which the entity was registered and b) the establishment deed date in all other cases in which the first option cannot be applied.
The submission date of fiscal declarations
It has been specifically provided that if a fiscal declaration is submitted to a tax authority lacking competence, the fiscal declaration will be deemed registered at its the registration date with tax authority lacking competence. In such cases, the tax authority lacking competencies is obliged to submit the tax declaration to the competent body within five business days as of the registration date.
Tax inspections and tax control procedures
The tax body can select the periods which will be subject to tax inspection, without having to verify the whole unchecked period. If it deems it necessary, however, the tax body can extend the tax inspection to other unverified periods.
This Ordinance allows central and local tax authorities to perform prevention tax inspections.
Payment date of tax liabilities resulting from a rectifying declaration
The Ordinance clarifies that the payment date of tax liabilities resulting from a rectifying declaration is the date of submission of the rectifying statement to the fiscal body.
Delay penalties and concealing penalty
It is now expressly regulated that the default penalty does not apply to the main tax obligations for which the non-declaration penalty is due.
Reschedule of tax obligation payments
As regards the payment reschedule procedure, the Ordinance provides for several changes aimed at extending deadlines in favour of the taxpayer / payer, as well as the possibility to apply for differential payment of the reschedule rates (i.e. different amounts / each tranche depending on the tax payer’s economic situation). The Ordinance also allows tax payers which fail to company with the reschedule obligations to ask for the maintenance of the reschedule decision once every year for which the reschedule was approved. Under the previous provision such a possibility was in place only once for the entire period of the reschedule process.
On the other hand, the Ordinance eliminates the possibility to grant a reschedule for tax obligations for which payment depends on the maintenance of the authorisation, agreement or other similar administrative act, such as excise duties.
Precautionary measures
In the case of guarantees constituted for the purpose of raising precautionary measures, the normative act stipulates that these must be maintained for the entire period of validity in which the precautionary measures would have been maintained according to the law. If the debtor does not extend their period of validity, the tax authority can execute these guarantees on the last day of their validity.
As far as the bank attachment is concerned, the normative act reduces the deadline for garnishee order from 30 days to 15 days.
Letter of guarantee may also be issued by a non-banking financial institution
The Ordinance introduces the possibility that a letter of guarantee also be issued by a non-banking financial institution registered in the National Bank of Romania’s registers.
New case for temporary suspension of enforcement procedure
A new provision has been introduced stipulating that the enforcement is suspended or it is not started for tax debts established by a decision issued by the tax authority if the debtor notifies the tax authority of its intention to lodge a letter of guarantee / insurance policy within 45 days as of the communication date of the tax decision. The normative act further expressly stipulates that during this period, the fiscal liabilities included in the tax decision will not be extinguished by other payments made by the tax payer. According to the law, if the debtor does not submit the letter of guarantee or insurance policy within 45 days as of the decision communication date, the forced execution may begin or continue, as appropriate.
The Ordinance provides that the enforcement of criminal court decisions referring to compensation for material damages, fines, court costs or confiscated amounts, will be made according to the Fiscal procedural Code without issuing another enforcement order in this respect.
Suspension of execution of fiscal administrative act granted by the courts
If a court grants a suspension of the enforcement of the fiscal administrative act, all legal effects of that act are suspended until the suspension is lifted according to the law. It has also been expressly stipulated that these legal effects concern both the main tax obligations included in the suspended administrative act as well as the interest and penalties irrespective of whether they were established by way of a separate decision that was not subject to the suspension court decision.
If a tax payer has applied for a suspension according to art. 14 of Law no. 554/2004 and paid the related bail under this procedure, such tax payer will not be obliged to pay another bail when it requests a new suspension under art. 15 of Law no. 554/2004, as long as the bail is still secured with the court file.
The takeaway
- Documents drafted in a foreign language must be presented to the tax authorities only accompanied by certified translations into Romanian language, otherwise they will not be accepted by the tax authority;
- The issuer of the letter of guarantee / policy of guarantee will be held jointly liable with the debtor if the latter does not pay the guaranteed amounts to the state budget at the request of the fiscal body;
- A new communication method for administrative acts has been provided. This method consists in handing over the fiscal act by a tax body employee, under signature, to the taxpayer at its tax domicile.
- In the event of refusing to receive the act or not being found at the headquarters / domicile, the tax payer will be invited to collect the act from the tax authority within 15 days.
- Credit institutions are obliged to ask tax authorities to assign the fiscal identification number / tax registration code to non-residents when they request to open a bank account or rent a safe deposit box;
- It has been clarified that the default penalty does not apply to the main tax obligations for which the non-declaration penalty is due;
- The possibility of rescheduling tax liabilities has been eliminated where payment depends on the maintenance of the authorisation, agreement or other similar administrative act, such as excise duties;
- The Ordinance introduces the possibility that a letter of guarantee be issued also by a non-banking financial institution registered in the National Bank of Romania’s registers;
- A new case has been provided for temporary suspension of an enforcement procedure for a limited period of 45 days if the debtor notifies the tax body of its intention to submit a letter of guarantee or insurance policy;
- It is now expressly stipulated that if a court grants a suspension of an enforcement, both the payment of the main tax obligations included in the suspended administrative act as well as the payment of the interest and penalties is suspended, irrespective of whether the related tax obligations were established by way of a separate decision not subject to the suspension court decision.