Romania: Amendments to Romanian accounting legislation

Emergency Government Ordinance (EGO) no. 13 dated 24 February 2021, which amends Law 227/2015 regarding the Fiscal Code and Accounting Law no. 82/1991, was published in the Romanian Official Gazette, issue no. 0197 dated 26 February 2021.

One of the amendments to the Accounting Law makes the audit and inventory provisions applicable to company transformations. Previously, this provision was applicable to mergers, spin-offs and dissolutions but not transformations.

Also, annual financial statements, consolidated annual financial statements, interim financial statements and financial statements or accounting reports prepared for periods other than annual are now to be kept for ten years. The other provisions of the Accounting Law regarding the financial statements have been extended to apply to interim financial statements.

A new report must now be added to the reports accompanying the financial statements or the report on payments to governments if the applicable accounting provisions stipulate an obligation to prepare it.

Another amendment of the Accounting Law envisages the conclusion of protocols between the Romanian Ministry of Finance and various authorities as well as educational and professional institutions regarding exchanging information.

It is a violation of the new amendments not to comply with the deadline for submitting the directors' report, audit report, censor committee report or report on payments to the government if the applicable accounting provisions stipulate an obligation to prepare them.

The penalties are:

• a fine of 300 to 1,000 lei if the reports are one to 15 working days late;
• a fine of 1,000 to 3,000 lei if the reports are 16 to 30 working days late; and
• a fine of 1,500 to 4,500 lei if the reports are more than 30 working days late.