Last updated: 11 March 2014
New fiscal rules starting from March 1st 2014
In order to transpose several European regulations, the Romanian fiscal provisions were amended once more following the issue of Government Ordinance no. 8/2014. This Ordinance has amended the Fiscal Code and the Code of Fiscal Procedure starting from March 1st 2014. Hereinafter you may find a presentation of some of these new provisions:
The reduction of the legal interest rate
The legal interest rate for fiscal debts was reduced from 0.04% to 0.03% per day, i.e. 10.95% per year. The measure was also justified by the necessity to reduce the burden of the interest paid by taxpayers. Nevertheless, delay penalties, which, for your reminder, are cumulated with the interest, remain at a level of 0.02% per day of delay.
Terms for the preventive seizure of bank accounts
The preventive seizure of bank accounts held by companies registering fiscal debts shall be made only 30 days from the date of communication of the fiscal notice. This measure aims at preventing the negative effects of the preventive seizure of bank accounts before the communication of the notice. Nevertheless, such a measure was often taken in practice in an abusive manner and with disastrous consequences for companies.
Optional certification of tax statements
In accordance with the former provisions of the Code of Fiscal Procedure, companies’ annual tax statements had to be certified by a fiscal consultant, who had to be registered in the Fiscal Consultants Register. As provided by the new rules, such a certification has become optional.
Nevertheless, the certification of the statements by fiscal consultants shall be taken into consideration and shall have a positive influence over the risk analysis performed by the tax authority in order to proceed to a tax inspection. Consequently, each company shall have to decide upon the opportunity of having certified statements.
External signs of wealth… new proof methods for the tax authority
Starting from March 2014, all aspects noticed by the vigilant eyes of the tax authority may be used by it in order to prove a person’s fiscal status. Thus, we mention audio-video registrations, data and information from any storage devices (e.g. servers, computers), as well as preventive and unannounced controls performed by the tax authorities, but also any proof not forbidden by the law in order to establish a debtor’s status.