Starting with January 1, 2010 micro-enterprises no longer exist in Romania

According to the communication of the Ministry of Public Finance of Romania, on January 27, 2010, starting with January 1, 2010, the provisions of Title IV ‘Taxes on the Income of Micro-enterprises “, the application regulations, as well as other provisions incident to this system, are not longer produceing legal effects.

In accordance with the provisions of Art. 107 of Law no. 571/2003 regarding the Fiscal Code, the taxation system for micro-enterprises had a limited application in time, ending on December 31, 2009, by way of regulating tax rates only for the years 2007-2009.

In the Romanian Official Gazette No.761 of November 9, 2009 was published the Law nr.329 of 05.11.2009 amending the Tax Code with an new Article, namely Article 19.2 paragraph (1) which states a tax exemption on the reinvested profit.

Thus, by law, the profit invested in the production and/or acquisition of equipment (machinery, equipment and work facilities), as stated in subgroup 2.1 of the “Catalogue on classification and normal periods of operating fixed assets, used in order to obtain taxable income” is exempt from tax.

The exemption from tax applies only to assets considered new, by this understanding that they were not used before the publication of these provisions.

Profit invested under Law 329 of November 9, 2009, represents the balance of the profit and loss account, representing the cumulative accounting profit from the beginning of the year and is used within the year when the investment is made.

The Government Ordinance amending the Tax Code which will apply from January 1, 2010 has been adopted and does not contain any provision on the reduced tax of 3%.

According to the Tax Code for 2010, published by the National Tax Administration Agency, micro-enterprises will pay from January 1, 2010 an income or profit tax of 16%, as the reduced income tax of 3% applies only until 31 December 2009, as indicated in the Article 107 of the Tax Code:

“The tax rate on micro-enterprise’s income is 2% in 2007, 2.5% in 2008, 3% in 2009”.

The Finance Ministry has expressed its intention of not changing the tax rate of 3% for micro-enterprises, with the possibility of extending its application for a further year. These are only expressed opinions, as there is no legislation in this regard till today.

If this tax rate will disappear, all the advantages that firms bearing the status of micro-enterprises benefited from, will be abolished from 2010.

2010 is preparing us a series of new amendments to the Tax Code. In addition to those which are still in the planning phase or in the center of public debate, there are some changes that have already become certainties, since they were already published in a legal document, the Ordinance 109 of October 7, 2009 published in Official Gazette no. 689 of 13.10.2009.

The main amendments of the Fiscal Code refers to the place of delivery for services and the finalcial summary statement. Thus, the Ordinance 109 of 07/10/2009 amended Article 133 of the Tax Code, regarding the place of delivery for services.

If until now the place of delivery for services was considered the place where the supplier is established or has fixed office from which services are delivered, once with the amendments of the Ordinance 109 of 2009, under Article 133 paragraph 2), the place of delivery for services became the place where the person that receives the services has the business office.

The portal e-Romania will be launched on December 25th with the first ten services. So whether you must pay a tax on a good or a fine, starting with this date you can do it directly on internet, saving any unnecessary travels or lossing time staying at the endless queues.

Later on, the portal will cover other areas such as education, health and culture.

A better news is coming, but for legal entities: within maximum 89 days, all companies will be able to present the balance sheets and pay all the fees online.

According with the World Bank, Romania has currently one of the most bureaucratic tax administrations in the world.

If on December 25 the portal will be really launched , then we could say that we are witnessing a great step that Romania is doing towards information technology and, implicitly, to improve the communication between the State and its custumers, the taxpayers.

Starting with October 2009, Mirela Dinu became the new coordinator of finance and accounting department of Ascent Group office in Bucharest.

Mirela graduated the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, Management and Business Administration specialization. Her professional experience includes 5 years in developing projects as economist and accountant for important companies from the Romanian and foreig financial market. In all these years Mirela has developed activities of management, financial reporting and economic analysis.

Many entrepreneurs who wanted to apply until now on projects funded by EU have been discouraged by the lack of pre-financing. So far entrepreneurs received a pre-financing of 10-20% which was calculated from the co-financed amount, which extended to approximately 50% of the project.

Now, the entrepreneurs can receive from start 30% from the value of projects financed by European Union money.
The only problem entrepreneurs will still be facing is the difficulty of receiving loans from the banks for running the projects.

On October 6th Ascent Group Bulgaria held in the Radisson Hotel Sofia a seminar under the theme “The Crisis Age of Enterprise”, which was delivered by Mr. Larry Farrell – globally recognized authority on entrepreneurship.

Mr. Farrell has a wide and diverse theoretical and practical background – Peace Corps Volunteer, University of California Law School, Harvard Business School, Vice President at American Express in New York, President of Kepner-Tregoe in Princeton, NJ, board member of The Economic Development Society in the USA, and The Journal Of Strategic Change in London. He is also a regular columnist for The Conference Board Review, the magazine of The Conference Board in New York City

The companies that ask the VAT reinbursment from the Romanian state still have to recover about 911 billion euros, almost 3.827 billion lei. Between February and August the state has returned 1.69 billion euros (7.10 billion lei) according to NAFA data.

The largest peak of the payment was recorded in August when the Government returned 1.197 billion lei (285 million euros).

The monthly reimbursement is made at three fixed terms, i.e.: on 4th, 24th and 29th of each month and the outstanding debts will be paid within 45 days, as the former premier Emil Boc declared at the end of June.

NAFA President, Sorin Blejnar, said that the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (NAFA) will pay in October approximately one third of the amounts outstanding to companies for VAT refunds. So, over 2,700 companies were about to recover the VAT from the state last month.

When the leitmotif of the current economic context has become “cost reduction / cost optimization”, an important solution for any company that wants to survive on the market is to outsource certain services that are not related to its core activity, such as: IT services, finance & accounting services, legal and human resources: recruitment, personnel leasing, training, payroll services and personnel administration.

Why is outsourcing an important solution to reduce and optimize costs?

I tried to illustrate below some of the main arguments:

The UE unemployment rate reached a value-record of 8.9% in June 2009, being the highest level of the last four years, informs Eurostat, European Statistics Institute.

In May, the unemployment rate reached 8.8%, while in the euro zone was registered 9.3%. In June, the value registered the record of 9.4%. The 9.4% represents for this region the highest level in the last ten years.

In numbers, the EU unemployed rate in June has exceeded 21.5 million people, aş much as the Romanian population count. Of this number, nearly 14.9 million people without a job were registered in the euro area. Compared with June 2008, the number of unemployed people increased by 5.02 million in the EU and 3.17 million in the euro area. The countries with the lowest unemployment rates recorded in June were in Netherlands (3.3%) and Austria (4.4%) and the highest were recorded in Spain (18.1%) Latvia (17.2%) and Estonia (17%).

As the global economic crisis was not enough for our economic situation, 2009 dealt a hard blow to all Romanian companies that are income tax payers, introducing a flat rate tax starting with 1^st of May.

Due to this new legal provisions, each legal person has to pay a mandatory minimum income tax. In more concrete and less formal terms, “you must pay, no matter what”. The reason why is very simple in the opinion of the people who proposed and voted this tax application law:

From the amount of 12.95 billion euros that Romania has borrowed from International Monetary Fund, it already received only 5 billion. The next part of 1.9 billion euros will get into our accounts on September 15.

However, it appears that the compliance with the International Monetary Fund mission is very difficult for Romanian authorities. The IMF evaluations shows that the bank field is going relatively well, but the problem is on fiscal – budgetary policy. In order to make it work we need reforms and to reorganize the social policies, pensions and the salaries law in the public sector.

Signing the agreement with the IMF, the Romanian state has undertaken to take measures to strengthen the public finances, the first measure being the gradual reduction of the budget deficit through strict control of public expenses. Once the IMF mission will visit again Romania and based on their conclusions it will be decided whether to release the next part of loan or not.

A new page of European Union history has been written once with the establishment of the first European institution with responsibilities in terms of monitoring developments in financial and banking markets and reporting the systemic risks.

The European leaders have decided the establishment of a new European institution – the Council for Systemic Risks – in response to the G20 Summit which took place in London, on April 2, when the participants have asked a better monitoring of economies in general and financial and banking markets in particular.

Ascent Group, in cooperation with the partner Jordan Sheppard, is currently deploying intensive efforts to identify the market’s most talented IT professionals.

Our client is a Service Provider for the European Union and the opportunities are aimed at young IT professionals who wish to access interesting and international IT career perspectives (the employer is Belgium based), either at a senior but also a more junior/entry level. Interested professionals can review enclosed a list of currently available positions.

The ability to speak fluently both English and French is essential. The applicants can send their resumes to email

The Governmental Ordinance no. 105/2009 repealed the provisions of Governmental Ordinance no 831/1997 in order to approve the common patterns forms for the financial and accounting activities and for the regulations concerning the way to prepare and use these forms.

Under the new regulations, the companies should consider the fact that the tax receipts issued with electronic tax devices under the Emergency Ordinance 28/1999 are documents that prove the payment and need to be attached to the cash flow register.

Introducing in the accountancy the purchased goods or the expenses made by companies and paid based on tax receipt (cash or card), is possible only if:

1. the company requires an invoice for delivered goods or for the carried out services, having in annex the tax receipts issued by the electronic tax device

or

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Minimis State grants represent one of the best financing solutions for small and medium enterprises. At the end of May the Government increased 20 times the grants schemes to enterprises, from five million to one hundred million, allocating 20 million euros for 2009.

Moreover, the Government also extended the number of companies fields of activity that may require such grants from the state, including mostly manufacturing: the production of textures, clothing, leather processing and footwear production, glass production and articles of paper.

These grants are offered for a period of three consecutive fiscal years, and the projects are supported 100% by the state budget.

article published in Tonica magazine

How many times dind’t you want to escape, even for one single day, from the crowded roadway from your job office and back, anyhow you were traveling: with your own car, subway, bus? How many times you dreamed to escape, at least for one single day, from the morning strict schedule of your office that you can not violate but extremely flexible in the evening?

And how many times you have wanted to be able to transform the perfectly ironing clothes, the dress perfectly matching with the makeup, the elegant hair or the heavy atmosphere from the office with a light toilet – pajamas or robe and with a nice music loud enough for a perfect relax ?

Seems like a dream, but today’s technology allows us to enjoy and to forget, whenever we want, the never ending timetable from the job, the crowd and the enforced dress code, if we decide to work from home.

On 18th of June 2009 took place in Bulgaria, Ruse the „No Borders” event, a Romanian – Bulgarian bilateral business meeting organized by Ascent Group in partnership with UNPR – National Union of Romanian Employers, BRCCI – Romanian–Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the magazines Manager Bulgaria and Consulting Review Romania.

Bulgaria and Romania, two neighboring countries separated by borders several decades that remained now only symbolic, gathered in No Borders event all their business potential and colaboration interest. No Borders event aimed to encourage the cross-border cooperation and investments, to facilitate the neighboring market acces and to stimulate business partnerships for both countries companies.

Starting with 1st of May 2009 a few important changes of the Romanian Fiscal Code became effective, through the Emergency Ordinance 34/2009. We present below the most important elements that have been changed.

Introduction of the lump tax rate

One of the main news brought by the Emergency Ordinance 34/2009 is reffering to the introduction of a new type of taxing, the lump tax rate.

In this respect, was introduced for the Romanian legal entities, payers of the taxable profit, the compulsoriness to determine the quarterly tax by comparing the quarterly income tax with the minimum quarterly lump tax rate and the income payment at the higher amount.

To apply the lump tax rate, the amounts corresponding to the minimum tax, determined according to total income registered on December 31st 2008, are:

Costs of doing business in Bulgaria are about 46 percent lower than the average in the EU, said Petar Dimitrov, Minister of Economy and Energy, quoted by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA). On March 5, he called on participants in the Bulgarian Business and Investment Forum to invest in the country, as the cheapest place to invest in the European Union.

Factors that make Bulgaria attractive for investments in times of a global economic crisis are the low labor costs and taxes. The social security burden in the country ranks fourth in the EU.

Starting with January 2009 Ascent Group has signed a strategic agreement with the famous American specialist in research and promotion of the entrepreneurship and innovating solutions in business – Larry Farrell. Based on this agreement Ascent Group will represent exclusively The Farrell Company in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Republic of Moldova for training and consultancy services on entrepreneurship.

Larry Farrell is a world wide authority, being deeply involved on spreading the entrepreneurial spirit all over the world. He presented the entrepreneurship principles in front of more than 1.3 millions of professional individuals, organizations and government.

Under “normal” economic conditions and moreover in economic and financial crisis context, outplacement, as a way to support future ex- employees fully proves its usefulness.

Defined as a consultancy service dedicated both to employees and employers, meant to ensure a smooth transition to a new job, respectively a new organizational structure, outplacement very well points out an ethical approach that companies must prove in difficult times.

On the development route of a company, critical moments can sometimes arise, when in order to remain competitive on the market the company must downsize its personnel or part (from different reasons) with some members of its team, including members of the managerial team. In these situations benefiting from external, specialized consultancy services is ideal. I would name only a few reasons: objectiveness, confidentiality and expertise.

Today the English language has become an indispensable way of communication in business. And more, the most of us, those that activate in various areas related to business environment, claim that we speak English.

But how many times we asked ourselves if the English we are talking day by day is appropriate to the business environment, or rather is an academic English more appropriate to the academic environment in which we grow?

How many of us had the feeling, coming out of school that the English taught in school is somehow different from the one we need to effectively manage our business or simply, different from English that we need daily.

In this respect, there is now the possibility to assess our ability to communicate in English, or to test the English knowledge of our employees, using a method very known at the international level – the TOEIC test.

Changes in the social insurance and tax burden in Bulgaria which took place at the beginning of 2009 include a decrease in the mandatory pension contributions owed by employer and employee and an increase in the mandatory health contributions. The reference income maximum remains the same as last year, or BGN 2000. It was brought to that level in 2008, after being fixed at BGN 1400 in August 2007. The 10% proportional income tax for employees remains the same.

As a result of these changes the social insurance and tax burden for gross salaries of up to BGN 2000 has fallen, from 36.2% на 30.3%.