Romania: New tax facilities

Emergency Government Ordinance no. 181 published in the Official Monitor on 26 October 2020 brings some new tax facilities, as follows:

• Payment of taxes due by legal entities or individuals from 21 March 2020 is postponed until 25 December 2020. No interest or late payment penalties will be due for these amounts.

• VAT refunds will be decided upon in a subsequent tax audit by 25 January 2021.

• Payment of specific tax (e.g. restaurants, hotels) is cancelled for the period between 26 October and 31 December 2020. If the taxpayer has already submitted a tax return, a rectifying one should be submitted.

• The expenses incurred by companies for Covid-19 tests for their employees are deductible for profit tax purposes. At the level of the employee, these amounts are exempt from income tax and social insurance contributions. 

• Local councils and the Bucharest city council can permit a reduction of up to 50% in the annual building tax for non-residential buildings until 2 December 2020, provided certain criteria are met. The initial deadline was 14 August 2020.

• The deadline for notification of the tax authorities by taxpayers who apply for the restructuring of their budgetary obligations according to GO 6/2019 has been extended until 31 March 2021. At the same time, the deadline for submitting their restructuring application has been postponed until 30 June 2021.

• There will be no penalties for companies that fail to ensure the remote connection of their electronic fiscal cash registers until 31 December 2020.

• There is a new simplified debt rescheduling procedure for tax obligations due for payment after the start of the state of emergency (i.e. 16 March 2020) and not yet paid until issuance of the fiscal certificate. These tax obligations may be paid in instalments for a maximum period of 12 months, provided certain criteria are met. The amounts subject to the simplified debt rescheduling procedure should not be lower than RON 500 for individuals and RON 5,000 for legal entities.