Today, the Government has amended through an Emergency Ordinance, the Fiscal Procedure Code, the main changes aiming at simplifying procedures in relation to economic agents and reducing the penalties and late interest charges they pay, Finance Minister, Mr. Sebastian Vladescu has stated, at the end of the Government meeting.
One of the innovations introduced by the legislative act relates to the functioning of a single tax commission within the Ministry of Public Finance (MFP), and not two commissions, as until now, Minister of Public Finance has stated.
"This step has already been taken at technical level, now being carried out at the legislative level too. We dismantle the two commissions and there will be only one. Therefore, we will not run the risk that the Ministry of Finance issues different tax solutions, Minister Sebastian Vladescu has stated.
Currently, there is the Central Fiscal Commission established within the MPF, which has responsibilities in issuing decisions on the uniform enforcement of the Tax Code and Tax Procedures Commission, established within ANAF (National Agency of Tax Administration), which is in charge of issuing decisions on the unitary enforcement of Fiscal Procedure Code and legislation falling within the competence of ANAF.
Another amendment introduced by the legislative act is to increase from 1 million to 5 million lei, the ceiling of the disputed tax claims demarcating the competence of solving appeals between the specialty directorate at central level and the specialty structures at local level.
According to other amendment, "we introduce the right of tax auditors to determine tax obligation by indirect methods of reconstitution of revenues or expenditure, when it is noted that the accounting records or the contributor’s statements do not reflect the taxpayer's tax situation or when these documents are not made available, "the Finance Minister has added.
Regarding reduction of penalties and late interest charges operated by the legislative act, the Minister of Finance showed that "the first good news is that it reduces the level of increase from 0.1% to 0.05% per day.
"The penalty system is changing. In fact, the increase will be equivalent to an interest rate because it is a way by which taxpayers can finance themselves. So, it would be the idea of an interest correlated with the interest in the budgetary sector, "the Finance Minister stated.
Also, Minister Sebastian Vladescu showed that in the first 30 days after the due date, there will be no penalties for late payment. If the payment of tax obligations is made in the following 60 days, the penalty for late payment is 5% of the main tax obligations. After this 60 day deadline, the penalty for late payment is 15% of the unpaid main tax obligations.
Regarding debts owed to local budgets, the level of late payment charge is 2% of the amount of main tax obligations unpaid on time, calculated for each month or part of month as of the day following the due date until the settlement of amount due including .
Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu mentioned other amendment, namely the removal of the possibility of transfer of tax claims administered by ANAF as way of settling the taxpayers’ debts,.