Tax Flash No. 5/2020 – Additional fiscal measures in the COVID-19 context
Emergency Ordinance 48/2020 regarding certain fiscal measures was published in the Official Gazette 319/2020
The Emergency Ordinance amends the following normative acts:
FISCAL CODE
Microenterprise income tax
- The deduction from the microenterprises income tax is extended to include the sponsorships made to public institutions and authorities, with the specification that there is no obligation that the public institution/authority is registered in the Register of entities / cult units for which tax deductions are granted.
Income tax and social contributions
- Benefits in kind granted to natural persons who derive salary and assimilated to salary income as a result of occupying functions considered by the employer / payer essential for carrying out the activity and which are in preventive isolation at work or in specially dedicated areas where persons from outside do not have access, for a period established by the employer / payer, in case of the establishment of the state of siege or emergency, as per the law, are not subject to income tax and social security contributions.
- For the indemnities borne from the unemployment budget for the duration of the state of emergency no fiscal incentives apply (e.g., exemptions from income tax and social security contributions for construction workers).
Excises
- The conditions in which ethyl alcohol, alcoholic beverages, as well as energy products and tobacco entered into the private ownership of the state or which are subject to a forced execution procedure or seized by the state can be used or destroyed by the competent authorities.
- During the state of emergency and 30 days after its completion, the distortion of ethyl alcohol is allowed in the authorized tax warehouses as well for the production of alcoholic beverages by submitting an application and accompanying documents if necessary.
This provision applies both to the alcohol in the stock of the economic operators holding the tax warehousing authorization, as well as to the alcohol purchased and received during the entire state of emergency and 15 days after its completion.
FISCAL PROCEDURE CODE
- During the state of emergency and 30 days after its completion, the VAT requested for reimbursement through the negative VAT returns with the option to reimburse, submitted within the legal deadline, is reimbursed by the central fiscal authority with the tax inspection being performed subsequently, with certain exceptions.
- These provisions also apply for the negative VAT returns that are in the process of being solved and for which the VAT refund decision has not been issued until the Emergency Ordinance comes into force.
- During the state of emergency and 30 days after its completion, no interest and penalties are due for the late payment of rates from unpaid schedules.
Emergency Ordinance 33/2020 regarding certain fiscal measures
- During the entire state of emergency and 30 days after its completion, VAT is not required to be paid in customs for imports of completely denatured ethyl alcohol used for the production of disinfectants performed by importers holding end-user authorization.
Government Ordinance no. 77/2009 on the organization and operation of gambling
- A series of aspects concerning the prolongation of gambling licenses and related authorizations, as well as the suspension of payment obligations related to the landbased gambling activities during the state of emergency have been regulated.
Law no.170 / 2016 on the specific tax for certain activities
- The taxpayers which fall under the specific tax for certain activities, that are not insolvent and interrupt their activity wholly or partly during the state of emergency and which hold the certificate for the state of emergency issued by the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment are not liable to pay the specific tax for the respective period.
Annual financial statements
- The deadline for submitting the annual financial statements for the financial year 2019 and the annual accounting reports completed on December 31, 2019 is extended until 31 July.
The Romanian version of this newsletter is available here.
