Last updated: 5 February 2018
Taxpayers now have a legal instrument allowing them to remedy any error made in a tax return, without being automatically subject to financial penalties applied by inspectors during a tax inspection. This instrument is Law no. 270 as of 22 December 2017 – Prevention Law, published in Official Journal no. 1037 as of 28 December 2017, in force since 17 January 2018.
However, although the law has entered into force, its application remains problematic, since a list of offences that can be avoided by rectifying the tax returns has not been published yet. Such list was to be published until 15 January 2018, but this has not happened yet.
OFFENCES AND REMEDIES
Prevention Law expressly provides, for the first time, the obligation of the relevant authorities and public institutions to inform entrepreneurs about the legislation in force and the rights and obligations incumbent upon them before proceeding to applying sanctions for offences during an inspection.
In addition to this obligation to inform, public authorities or institutions also have the obligation to advise the persons concerned, for a correct and uniform application of the legal provisions, including by posting on their websites of the most frequent cases and the advice provided in each of these cases.
The offence report must clearly state that the authority in question has complied with its duty to advise the taxpayer.
In order to prevent offences, the Government will draw-up a list of the offences to be firstly sanctioned by a warning, accompanied by a remedy plan.
Inobservance by the tax inspector of the procedure stipulated by the law entails the nullity of the offence report.
Please note that, regardless of the number of offences the inspector has discovered, he/she will be required to draft a single report and a single remedy plan.
REMEDY DEADLINES AND SANCTIONS
The authority grants the taxpayer a period of 10 business days to remedy the findings of the inspector. If the taxpayer has not remedied the findings listed in the offence report, the inspector will issue a new offence report and will apply the civil sanction(s), other than the warning.
Furthermore, the law stipulates a period of 3 years from the date of the offence and sanction report, during which, if the offender commits the same offence, he will NO LONGER benefit from the procedure provided by the Law and will be sanctioned in accordance with the legal provisions.
The same will be applied to the offender who has committed several offences found simultaneously by the same inspector and who, during the same period of 3 years, commits one or more new offences.
Therefore, the offender will be allowed to take preventive measures for the same type of offences only once during a 3-year period.
Please note that, depending on the seriousness of the offence, civil sanctions and fines can go from 25 Lei to 100,000 Lei, as provided by Government Ordinance no. 2/2001.