Romania: Procedure for tax amnesty

On 20 July 2020, Romanian government published Order no. 2100/2020 regarding the procedure for the tax amnesty adopted at the beginning of May 2020.

As a reminder, the amnesty includes the waiver of late payment interest and penalties, non-declaration penalties and other charges (“accessories”) payable by taxpayers for outstanding main budgetary obligations as of 31 March 2020 (“outstanding debts”). The amnesty is aimed at all taxpayers with outstanding debts, e.g. natural persons, legal entities, natural persons carrying out economic activities or liberal professions, entities without legal personality, public institutions, debtors declared insolvent, debtors with their tax domicile outside Romania, etc.

The amnesty applies to the outstanding debts that are managed by the central fiscal body and established by:

• Tax returns;
• Tax decisions;
• Tax decisions on accessories;
• Any other documents establishing taxes, duties, social security contributions or customs duties. 

The tax amnesty consists of:

• Deferral of the payment of accessories until the settlement date of the tax amnesty application or until 15 December 2020 inclusive in the case of non-submission of the application but with a submitted notification, and
• Cancellation of accessories.

The main conditions for benefiting from the tax amnesty are:

• Fulfilment of all the declarative and payment tax obligations due starting from 1 April 2020;
• Payment of outstanding debts in relation to which the accessories are established, including those generated by rectifying returns.

The accessories subject to the tax amnesty refer to the following main budgetary obligations:

1. Outstanding debts as of 31 March 2020 inclusive and outstanding debts that on 31 March 2020 inclusive were established by tax decisions that were appealed and guaranteed, as follows:
   – Outstanding debts for which the due date or payment term was met on 31 March 2020 inclusive;
   – Differences in tax debts established by tax decisions communicated up to and including 31 March 2020, as well as differences in tax debts related to fiscal periods up to and including 31 March 2020, established by tax decision issued and communicated by 14 May 2020, as a result of a tax audit or verification of the personal tax situation;
   – Tax debts related to the fiscal periods up to and including 31 March 2020, established by a tax decision issued ex officio by the tax authorities or by a tax return submitted late by the taxpayer, between 1 April 2020 and the date of submitting the tax amnesty application inclusive;
   – Other payment obligations evidenced in enforceable titles issued according to the law and existing in the records of the tax authorities for recovery on 31 March 2020 inclusive, as well as the outstanding debts established by bodies other than tax authorities, related to fiscal periods up to 31 March 2020, sent for recovery to the tax authorities in the period between 1 April 2020 and the date of submitting the tax amnesty application inclusive. 
2. Differences in tax debts declared by the taxpayer by rectifying tax returns referring to tax debts with due date up to and including 31 March 2020.
3. Tax debts related to fiscal periods up to and including 31 March 2020 and paid by this date.
4. Other payment obligations related to the fiscal periods up to and including 31 March 2020 evidenced in tax decisions as a result of a tax audit or verification of the personal tax situation ongoing on 14 May 2020.

The aforementioned tax facilities do not apply to amounts attributed to the European Union budget, namely European funds.

The main steps for applying the tax amnesty are the following:

• Submission of a written notification to the tax authorities evidencing the intention of applying for tax amnesty – this preliminary step is optional and the taxpayer has the possibility to submit directly the application for tax amnesty.

• The tax authorities verify whether the taxpayer has fulfilled all its declarative obligations by the date of submitting the notification and issues the decision for accessories and the tax attestation certificate within 5 working days. All notifications submitted prior to the publication of the present procedures, i.e. 20 July 2020, will be settled by the tax authorities by 27 July 2020.

• If there are inconsistencies between the tax debts evidenced in the tax attestation certificate and the taxpayer’s records, these will be settled within 3 working days.

• After the analysis of all documentation, the tax authorities will issue the decision for approval/rejection of the deferral from payment of accessories, as the case may be. Starting on the date the decision was issued approving the deferral of payment of accessories:
  – The enforcement procedure will not start or will be suspended, as the case may be.
  – The accessories are not extinguished until the date of settling the tax amnesty application or until 15 December 2020 inclusive, as the case may be.

• Submission of the tax amnesty application no later than 15 December 2020. For the amounts evidenced in tax decisions as a result of a tax inspection or verification of the personal tax situation, the application should be submitted after the payment of tax debts but no later than 90 days from the communication date of the tax decision.

• The tax authorities verify that all the conditions for tax amnesty are fulfilled and will issue the decision for approval/rejection of the cancellation of accessories within 5 working days.

Taxpayers who have an ongoing payment schedule for tax obligations according to the law and wish to benefit from the tax amnesty should submit the tax amnesty application, without the need to notify the tax authority of their intention, providing the tax attestation certificate and the decision for approval/rejection of the deferral of payment of accessories.

The notification and the tax amnesty application may be submitted to the tax authorities (i) directly to the registry of the competent tax authorities, (ii) by post or (iii) electronically, using the taxpayer’s virtual private space (SPV).