I. LEGISLATIVE CHANGES – EMERGENCY ORDINANCE No. 181/2020
1. No interest or late payment penalties for outstanding tax liabilities
No interest or late payment surcharges will be calculated and levied for tax liabilities
due from 21 March 2020 and not paid by 25 December 2020 inclusive. At the same
time, the same period applies to the suspension of enforcement proceedings by
attachment.
2. Postponed deadline for VAT audits
In the future, the VAT applied for refund will be refunded by the central tax office
without an advance tax audit. Instead, the tax audit will be carried out subsequently
until January 25, 2021.
3. Exemptions from the payment of specific tax
The exemption from payment of specific tax for certain activities also applies for the
remaining period until the end of 2020. Taxpayers who, at the time of the entry into
force of EO181/20, have submitted the tax return for the specific tax for the first half of
2020 must submit corrected returns.
4. COVID tests, deductible business expenses
The equivalent of the medical tests used to diagnose a COVID-19 infection during the
declaration of a state of emergency or alert, which are carried out by companies to
ensure the continuation of business activities, constitute deductible operating
expenses. The associated costs for employees are not considered a benefit in kind.
5. Simplified procedure for the staggering of debts
Enterprises and natural persons may apply for the simplified alternative procedure for
granting graduated payments for the most important liabilities to the state budget and
their ancillary costs whose payment term expired after the day of declaration of the
state of emergency and until the day of issue of the tax certificate, for a maximum of
12 months.
To be able to claim the simplified procedure, the following conditions must be met:
- The application must be submitted by 15 December 2020 inclusive. Upon request,
the debtor may add the staggered schedule with the proposed amount of
installment payments. - The company must not be in bankruptcy proceedings.
- The company is not in the process of liquidation.
- The applicant may not have any outstanding tax liabilities at the time of the
declaration of the state of emergency that have not been paid by the time the tax
certificate is issued. - With respect to the applicant, no liability under the Bankruptcy Law and/or a joint
and several debtors, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 25 and 26 of Act
No. 207/2015 on the Tax Procedure Code, may be established.
Exception: if the liability assessment decisions are final and conclusive and the
amount for which the liability was established has been paid, the condition is
deemed to be fulfilled. - For amounts of up to 500 lei, for natural persons, or up to 5,000 lei, for legal entities,
no payment scale is granted. - The debtor may request the change of the scale up to twice during the scaled
period.
6. The municipal councils may decide to reduce the building tax and exempt
tenants/concessionaires of buildings owned by the state until 2 December 2020
Until December 2, 2020, municipal councils, or the City Council of Bucharest, can pass
resolutions on the reduction of the annual building tax by up to 50%. Such a tax
reduction is intended for non-residential buildings owned by natural persons or legal
entities that use them for their own economic activity or that have transferred the use
of them on the basis of a lease, assignment or other contract for the performance of
economic activity by other natural persons or legal entities.
In addition, the municipal councils may decide to exempt from the monthly fee the
concessionaires, tenants, holders of administrative rights or use of a public or private
building owned by the State or administrative-territorial units from the monthly fee for
buildings owned by the State.
II. EMERGENCY ORDINANCE (EO) No. 182/2020 CHANGES EO 147/2020
1. Free working days for parents
In addition to the parents whose children learn in scenario 3 (online lessons only),
parents whose children learn in scenario 2 (school in rotation) may now also request
paid free working days. This only applies during the period of the state of emergency.
Note: DV 182/2020 also excludes the granting of paid free working days for parents
who can work from home. If the employer has the possibility to allow his employees to
work from home, he is obliged to do so, so that no free paid days need to be granted.
2. 2500 Lei support for teleworkers is not granted to employers if they are late
in reporting telework to REVISAL
The amount of 2500 lei will not be granted to employers who only after the statutory
period have reported the elements of the contract determining telework to the general
register of employees (REVISAL).