Amendments to the Methodological Norms for the application of the Fiscal Code (Government Decision No. 77 / 2014, published in Official Gazette No. 108/12 February 2014)

Certain amendments and clarifications have been introduced concerning corporate income tax, microenterprises income tax, withholding tax, VAT and excise duties.

The provisions of the Government Decision become effective upon their publication in the Romanian Official Gazette, except for the change regarding the monitoring of situations related to granting direct exemption from excise duties on natural gas or electricity, which will enter into force on 1 April 2014.

Please refer to our Tax Alert no. 6/February 2014 for further details.

Amendments to the Fiscal Code and The Fiscal Procedure Code

(Government Emergency Ordinance No. 8 / 2014, published in the Official Gazette No. 15/28 February 2014)

The Ordinance brings amendments and completions to several normative acts, including the Fiscal Code and the Fiscal Procedure Code.

These amendments become effective upon their publication in the Romanian Official Gazette with certain exceptions.

Please refer to our Tax Alert no. 8/March 2014 for further details.

Corporate income tax

Order regarding the updated consumer price index used for updating advance payments for profits tax purposes (Order no. 256/2014 published in the Official Gazette no. 135/ 25 February 2014)

For fiscal year 2014 the consumer price index to be used for updating the advance payments for profits tax is 102.4%.

VAT

Order for amending the provisions of Order no 3,331/2013 of the President of the National Agency of Fiscal Administration (Order no. 235 published in the Official Gazette no. 133/ 24 February 2014)

The Order excludes, inter-alia, the provisions regarding the ex officio registration in the Registry for taxpayers appling the VAT cash-in system (considering that starting with 1 January 2014 the system is optional).

Customs

Order for amending the provisions of Order no 9,710/2006 of the President of the National Agency of Fiscal Administration (Order no. 94/2014 published in the Official Gazette no. 101/ 10 February 2014)

The Order approves the list of customs offices empowered to perform custom clearance with strategic products.

Environment fund

Environment Fund contributions (Order nr. 192/2014 published in the Official Gazette no. 129/ 21 February 2014)

The amendments brought by the Order refer, inter-alia, to:

- amended definitions of specific terms (such as “Introducing on the national market”, “First distribution on the national market”, “Oils”);

- the contribution of 2 RON/kilo for packed goods is due also by economic operators which rent out, with professional title, packages (for the respective packages introduced on the national market);

- certain conditions were introduced in order for packaging waste to be taken into account for achieving the recovery or incineration objectives;

- operators opting to individually realize annual objectives for used tyres should, inter-alia, hold documentation to prove the traceability of the respective tyres (from the economic operators that introduce used tyres on the national market to the recovering economic operators);

- starting with 1 January 2014, the contribution for mineral oils is of 0.30 lei/kg (from 2 lei/l).

Amendments to tax forms

Forms 100 and 120 (Order no. 123/2014 published in the Official Gazette no. 87 / 4 February 2014)

The Order approves the form and content of the Excise duties return applicable for 2013 and the instructions for filling-in form 100 for the tax obligations to be declared starting with 1 January 2014. One of the amendments refers to the declaration of construction tax through form 100.

Form 650 (Order no. 117/2014 published in the Official Gazette no. 103 /11 February 2014)

The Order approves form 650 - "Tax Decision in relation to the advance payments for health insurance contributions due from demise of the use of goods”, as well as the Appendix "Statement for establishing the monthly health insurance contribution".

This form is used for determining the advance payments for health insurance contributions due by certain individuals who obtain income from demise of the use of goods, starting with fiscal year 2014.

Miscellaneous

Circular regarding the interest reference rate of the National Bank of Romania (Circular no. 7/2014 published in the Official Gazette no. 90 /5 February 2014)

The circular stipulates that the NBR annual interest reference rate will be of 3.50% starting 5 February 2014.

Order regarding the sole account used for payment of tax liabilities to the State Budget (Order no. 223/2014 published in the Official Gazette no. 114 / 17 February 2014)

The Order amends the sole account number used for the payment of the tax liabilities to the State Budget detailing also the tax obligations to be paid in the sole account.

The new account will be used for the payment of the tax liabilities related to January 2014.

Order regarding the mandatory rate of acquisitions of green certificates for 2013 (Order no. 12/2014 published in the Official Gazette no. 145 / 27 February 2014)

The mandatory green certificates acquisition quota by the economic operators which have the obligation to acquire gren certificates, for 2013, is of 0.224 green certificates/MWh.

For additional information, please contact:

Venkatesh Srinivasan, Partner – Head of Tax and Legal

Ernst & Young SRL and E. Platis, C. Bazilescu LLLP

15-17 Ion Mihalache Blvd.

Bucharest Tower Center Building, 22nd Floor

Sector 1, 011171, Bucharest, Romania

Tel: (40-21) 402 4000, Fax: (40-21) 310 7124

Email: office@ro.ey.com

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