The modification of the minimum wage, at the beginning of 2014

The beginning of 2014 brings a set of legislative changes in the tax area. The vast majority has been announced at the end of the last year, so there are few who know these modifications and the fact that they will take effect from January 2014.

Among these changes, we are listing here below the ones with impact in the field of labor and social protection:

From September 1, 2013 several changes to the Tax Code and its implementing rules shall take effect. Among them, are worth mentioning :

Introduction of the reduced VAT rate TVA of 9% for backery products

This will apply to the following products:

• all kinds of bread
• croissants, rolls, sticks, pretzels, minibaghete, batons and braids ;
• white wheat flour, milled wheat flour, wheat flour and dark rye flour ;
• triticum spelta and meslin wheat – CN code 1001 99 00, and rye – CN code 1002 90 00

Excise tax will be extended to more products.

New categories of luxury products will be subject of the excise tax, such as:

The recently discussed chenges regarding the minimum wage in Romania became a fact. Thus, in the Official Gazette (Part I, no. 52.2013) was published the Decision no. 23/2013, which states the minimum gross base salary guaranteed in Romania.

The new rates are:

• starting with February 1, 2013, the gross minimum wage is 750 lei per month for a full-time program of 168,667 hours in average per month
• starting with July 1, 2013, the gross minimum wage is 800 lei per month for a full-time program of 168,667 hours in average per month

The beginning of the year brought some changes related to the legal and fiscal status of the microcompanies in Romania. Specifically, based on the Government Ordinance no. 8/2013, published in the Official Gazette no. 54 from 23 January 2013, the article 1121, c) of the Fiscal Code was modified, it’s new content being: „obtained revenues that do not overcome the amount of 65.000 euro”.

In other words, the 100.000 eur limit for revenues that allowed a company to qualify as microcompany, valid until last year, was reduced to 65.000 euro.

According to Government Decision 15/2012 for modifying the Law 571/2003 regarding the Fiscal Code for 2013, the taxpayers with tax residence in Romania and whose revenue during October 1st 2011 – September 30th 2012, does not exceed 2.250.000 RON will be applying the VAT charge on cashed-in system starting January 1st 2013.

In order to comply with these provisions, the taxpayer who is pass to the new system is responsible for submitting, before October 25th, a written notification to prove that revenue during October 1st 2011 – September 30th 2012 (inclusive) did not exceed the 2.250.000 RON limit.

• VAT on cash system does not apply to taxpayers that are part of a single fiscal group.
• VAT on cash system applies only to transactions where goods or services are in Romania.

Transations which are not affected by the new system

Law no. 76/2012 for the implementation of law no. 134/2012 concerning the Civil Procedure Code is the law that brings modifications for commercial companies.
This law will enter into force on 01.09.2012.

Art.79 of law no. 76/2012 stipulates: “In a term of 2 years after the present law enters into force, companies registered in the Commercial Register with the words “commercial company” in their name are required to do the necessary steps in order to replace them with the term “company”. Until completing these steps, the company can function with the name entered in the Commercial Register when the present law entered into force. The registration in the Commercial Register of this mention about the modification of the constitutive act concerning the change of the name of the company is exempt of registration tax”.

The midsummer of 2012 marked a change in the management of Ascent Group. Thus, with the 1st of July, the new financial manager of Ascent Group is Otilia Gal.

Otilia is an alumni of the Faculty of Economics from the University of Timisoara. Over the years she enriched her knowledge by attending numerous courses and specializations in finance and accounting.

Professionally, Otilia has 10 years of experience in finance, both within multinational companies and local companies.

During the last four years Otilia has held the position of financial advisor in the Arad office of Ascent Group Arad, and since the 1st of July 2012 she became the financial manager of Ascent Group.

Tuesday, August 28th 2012, the Government Decision no. 16/2012 was published, modifying and completing Government Decision 92/2003 regarding the Fiscal Procedure Code.

Modifications will apply starting August 31st 2012, except dispositions regarding closing of debts (pct. 3), which will apply starting November 1st 2012. 



Most important changes:



• First step is finding that aberrance.

• First step is finding that aberrance.

Contribution rates of the employers and the employees for 2012 are currently established by the two normative acts: Law No: 294/2011 Law on social state insurance budget in 2012, published in the Official Monitor no. 913 and the Law No: 293/2011- Law on state budget in 2012, published in the Official Monitor no. 914 of 22 December 2011.

Contribution to the social insurances

For 2012, the contribution rates of the social insurances are:

According to art. 134 of the Labour Code, actualised in 2011 with the Law 40/2011, in Romania the legal non-working days are:

• 1-2 January, New Year
• 1st and 2nd day of Easter
• 1st of May, international worker`s day
• 1st and 2nd day of Whitsuntide, 3-4th of June
• Assumption Day, 15th of August
• 1st of December, National Day of Romania
• 1st and 2nd day of Christms, 25-26 December

The people who belong to different religions than the Orthodox one have the right to take two days off for every one of the three annual religious holidays, declared so by the legal religious cults.

More additional proposals for days-off have been made: 24th of January, 10th of May or 30th of November, but these haven`t been aproved yet, still having the project status. Therefore, these days are not presently acknowledged as legal holidays.

According to the H.G. no. 1225/2011, starting with 01.01.2012 the minimum ensured gross wage per country is established to 700 lei/month compared to 670 lei/month as it used to be by the end of 2011.

The amount of 700lei/month is being established for a full time schedule of 169,33 hours average per month in 2012 which represents 4.13 lei/hour.

An individual contract termination with a salary below the one established as the minimal gross wage per country will be considered as minor offence and will be sanctioned according to the law with a fee from 1.000 lei to 2.000 lei.

Therefore, according to the new purview, the minimum gross wage per country is 700 lei for an uqualified worker.

H.G.1225/2011 for establishing the minimum gross wage per country was published in Monitorul Oficial of 14 December 2011.

Every beginning of the year comes with a series of questions regarding the reporting of the financial situation of the last year. In the following article, we will try to give an answer to some of the frequently asked questions on this matter, with reference to the 2011 financial year.

When do we submit Declaration 101 in 2012?

According to Ordonance nr. 2/25^th of January 2012 regarding modification and completion of OG 92/2003 regarding Fiscal Procedure Code, annual declaration of income tax (tax on profit) for 2011 will be submitted, with the proper authorities, until March 25th, except non-profit organizations and companies with their majority of income based on cereal culture and technical plants, tree and vine farming, which submit their form up to 25^th of february 2012.

During the same year, the Romanian Government publishes a new order by introducing a new procedure for registration in VAT […]

Ascent Group continues its expansion plans by opening a new office in Romania, in Sibiu.

Ascent Group’s office in Sibiu will offer clients all types of services the consulting group Ascent is offering, but also aims to become a catalyst for enhancing business relations between the central part of Romania and other countries in the region.

Not last, Sibiu office aims to provide support to all foreign investors intending to start a business in Transylvania.

The office in Sibiu is the 7th office opened by Ascent Group, after those in Bucharest, Arad, Chisinau, Limassol, Sofia and Belgrade.

The contact details where you can find our new office are:

Ascent Group Sibiu
Revolution street no. 1, apt. 15
Tel: +40 269 211090
fax: +40 269 211722

We look forward to see you in Sibiu!

Prin intermediul HG nr. 500/2011, noua variantă a Registrului General de Evidenţă a Salariaţilor a fost publicată în Monitorul Oficial, […]

As a result to the public consultations, the Labour Inspection provides to the employers the new version of the IT application Revisal for establisment and completation of the evidence register of the employees in the electronic format, updated in accordance with the Government Decision no. 500/2011:

• Revisal 5.0.6 (for Windows XP/ Vista/ 7)
• Installation and use guide (Pdf format- Portable Document Format)

The new format of the Revisal application allows:

Recently, through the ANAF Order no. 3.253/2011 for the approval of issued application forms models OG no. 30/2011, were reglemented forms of delayed cancellation of penalties for companies which pay their debts until the end of the year.

Briefly, the fiscal facilities are granted for the fiscal obligations related fittings main residual fiscal obligations at 31 August 2011. Penalties of delaying are being cancelled or reduced as follows:

People who choose to work abroad usually use the services of companies that provide mediation services and job placement abroad, as they have don’t have a firm offer of work abroad or may not relate directly to potential employers abroad.

In Romania, private activity of mediation and work placement abroad is strictly regulated by law and companies that provide mediation services must meet certain conditions to carry out this work, namely:

Government approved two ordinances which amend the Tax Code and the Tax Procedure Code, designed to help companies during the current crisis.

The main changes are:

Early summer marked a change in the Ascent Group team. Thus, from the 1st of May, the new HR manager of Ascent Group in Romania is Ramona Bosînceanu.
Ramona is an alumnus of the Economics Faculty of the Aurel Vlaicu University in Arad, and of a Master program in Human Resources Management. Over the years, Ramona enriched her knowledge by attending numerous courses and specializations in the field of human resources.
Ramona has 9 years of experiences in the field of human resources, of which 3 years as a human resources specialist at Ascent Group. During this period she was involved in many projects of personal recruitment and executive search, personnel administration and payroll, personal assessment, restructuring of enterprises, collective negotiations and training.

In the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 0225 of 31 March 2011, Law 40/2011, for amending and supplementing Law no. 53/2003 – Labor Code, was published.

Amendments to the Labor Code are as follows:

1. Article 1 – (1) ‘This code regulates the employment relationship”, as compared to “implements all individual and collective labor relations.”

2. 16 – (2) Brings the obvious completion “Before entering the service, the individual employment contract shall be entered in the register of employee records, which is transmitted to the Territorial Labor Inspectorate” electronically.
If before the employer had to register the contract with the Labor Inspectorate within 20 days and then to hand the employee a copy of it, article 16 – (3) comes with completion “The employer is obliged, before commencement of work, to hand the employee a copy of the employment contract.”

Young entrepreneur, a new form of SRL

In the Official Gazzete of Romania nr. 103/09.02.2011 was published the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 6/02.02.2011 to stimulate the establishment and development of micro enterprises by young entrepreneurs.

Intrested persons, who wish to benefit from the Program to stimulate creation and development of micro enterprises by young entrepreneurs, may require registration with the Trade Registry within whose territorial jurisdiction the head office.

Program beneficiaries covered by this emergency ordinance, called young trader, is a major individual who meets the following conditions:

On 30^th of December 2010 the Romanian Government introduced through the O.U. no. 117/2010 the possibility to return to the status of microcompany.

In the understanding of this ordinance, the microcompany is a legal entity that at 31^st of December 2010 meets ALL the following conditions:

1. has incomes other than those obtained from banking, insurance, reinsurance, capital markets (except the intermediary in these areas), gambling, consultancy and management.
2. has minimum 1 and maximum 9 employees
3. achieved revenues that did not exceed the equivalent in lei of 100.000 EUR
4. the registered capital is held by persons, other than state and local authorities

On 30^th of December 2010 the Romanian Government introduced through the O.U. no. 117/2010 the possibility to return to the status of microcompany.