Emergency Ordinance no.37/13 April 2011 amending and completing the Accountancy Law no. 82/1991 and amending other related legislative regulations - published in the Official Gazette no. 285/22 April 2011

The amendments to the Accountancy Law include, inter alia, the following:
The categories of entities that are subject to the Accounting Law are amended with collective investment schemes which are not established based on articles of agreement, as provided by the capital markets legislation, optional pension funds, private pension funds and other entities organized under  the Civil Code (which have the obligation to organize and manage the  financial accounting) and freelancers (which have the obligation to conduct simplified single entry accounting);

The subunits established in Romania by companies residents in countries of the European Economic Area are not required to prepare annual financial statements in respect of their own activity;

The entities that, during the prior financial year, recorded a net turnover as well as total assets below the RON equivalent of EUR 35,000 calculated at the exchange rate published by the National Bank of Romania, valid at the end of the prior financial year, may opt for a simplified accounting system, approved by order of the Ministry of Public Finance. In case of such entities, the law allows to organize and manage the accounting activity based on contracts / agreements concluded under the Civil Code with individuals graduates of superior economic studies;

The provisions regarding the recording of receivables and payables in the accounting books at their nominal value were repealed;

The entities that use IT systems for automated data processing are required to ensure the control and the storage of data on technical media for 10 years and to provide the fiscal authorities with access to data stored on the technical media;

The financial and accounting documents lost, stolen or destroyed should be recovered ​​within 30 days from the finding and in case of Force Majeure within 90 days from its termination;

The financial statements prepared by not for profit legal entities include only the balance sheet and the statement of the year’s result;

In the category of public interest entities have been included the following additional types of entities: payment institutions and the institutions issuing electronic currency, as defined by the law, which grant credits related to the payment services and whose activity is limited to providing payment services, respectively issuing electronic currency and provision of payment services, companies fully or majority state owned, independent utilities, not for profit organizations that receive financing from public funds;

It was established the obligation for legal entities under liquidation to submit, during the liquidation period, an annual accounting report whose content is determined by order of the Minister of Public Finance, within 90 days from the end of each calendar year;

The level of fines for contraventions under the Accountancy Law was increased. Also, contraventions were established for non-compliance with the provisions regarding the organization and management of accounting (penalized with a fine between lei 1,000 and 10,000), non-compliance with the regulations regarding the approval of accounting policies and procedures provided by law (penalized with a fine between lei 300 and 4,000) and non-compliance with the requirement to audit the annual financial statements and consolidated financial statements, as provided by the law (penalized with a fine between lei 30,000 and 40,000).

Also, the Emergency Ordinance amends the Accountancy Law with certain provisions such as:

The mandatory requirements for entities that opt for a financial exercise different from the calendar year;

The filing of the annual, respectively consolidated financial statements, with the territorial units of the Ministry of Public Finances;

The filing deadlines of the annual, respectively consolidated financial statements.

These provisions were previously added by Minister of Public Finance orders.

The Emergency Ordinance repeals also certain provisions of other regulations such as, inter alia, the provision of the Companies Law no. 31/1990 regarding the possibility of the Trade Register or of any interested person to request the dissolution of a company that has not filed the annual financial statements or other documents which, by law, shall be submitted to the Trade Register, within 6 months from the legal deadline. The dissolutions of companies according to the above mentioned legal provisions which are in progress will be completed according to the provisions in force at the time of their introduction.

By Venkatesh Srinivasan, Partner – Head of Tax and Legal, Ernst & Young Romania

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