New tax deferrals and other tax measures to support the business environment

In view of the current situation, which is burdensome for the business environment, a new OUG project has been created, which is intended to bring additional exemptions and facilities for the companies.

These facilities concern:

The Romanian Government has launched a new phase of relaxation measures related to the current epidemiological context. In this regard, The Decision no. 465 was adopted on the 11th of June 2020, to amend and supplement Annexes 2 and 3 of HG 394/2020 on the Alert State Declaration.

Also, in the Official Journal n. 508 of 15 June 2020 was published the order of the Minister of Health no. 1,080 of 12 June 2020 amending and supplementing Amendment 414/2020 establishing the quarantine measures for persons in an international public health emergency due to COVID-19 infection.

Here’s a summary of the legislative changes, on the conditions of travel and entry into Romania.

 1. Countries to be exempted from quarantine/house isolation.

From 21^st of April onwards, both public entities and economic operators, which by their nature have opened accounts with the Treasury, will be able to make online payment via the electronic multiple payment order, by accounts opened with the Treasury units of the State through which it operates.

The new provisions are contained in the OMFP n. 1819/2020 and were published in the Official Journal n. 279 of 3 April 2020.

As of the 3^rd of April 2020, the procedures for submitting the documents required to obtain the technical unemployment indemnity have changed. According to the new methodology, all those who submit applications for April (therefore all applications that will be submitted after 1^st of May) must send them via the online platform made available by the Romanian Government, namely https://aici.gov.ro/home.

In addition, it is important to know that documents sent by e-mail to AJOFM will no longer be accepted.

The transmission of documents through the above-mentioned platform will ensure faster processing, better record keeping and easier access to documents to be filled in.

In addition, applications will be written intelligently to help employers calculate the compensation to be claimed and therefore errors in identifying the company will be limited.

Emergency Ordinance No. 70/2020 was published in the Official Gazette of Tuesday (May 14, 2020). It brings many changes, the most important of which concern the tax code and the resolution of technical unemployment, as a measure to help companies affected by the crisis caused by SAR-Cov-2.

The following is a summary of the main provisions contained in OUG 70/2020, in some important categories:

I. Extension of social protection measures

The legislative act concerns several measures caused by the current epidemiological situation in Romania, including:

• the period for granting the technical unemployment allowance shall be extended until 31^st of May 2020;

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The decision 24 of 14.05.2020 issued by the National Committee for Emergency Situations, published in M.O. n. 395/15.05.2020, approved the establishment of a state of alert at national level for a period of 30 days, starting from 15.05.2020.

As the state of alert has facilitated some of the measures ordered during the state of emergency and companies can start to resume their activities, the decision focuses on the definition of measures for prevention and control of infections.

The following is a set of measures applicable to companies:

1. Organisation of business activities towards employees and customers:

• is further encouraged to work at home or in telework, as public and private economic operators are obliged to organize their activities so that work is carried out from workers’ homes.

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With the end of the state of emergency, we also have some news regarding the activity of the Commercial Register.

Thus, for a period of six months from the date of the end of the emergency, the activity of the Register of Commerce will be done mainly by sending the files online or by correspondence.

At the same time, the program with the public at the institution’s desks began today (May 15), with a 4-hour work program, divided into two hourly intervals, which is:

• Monday-Thursday 09:00-11:00 and 12:00-14:00
• Friday 08:0-10:00 and 11:00-13:00

The public will have access to the premises of the Register of Commerce with a protective mask that covers both the mouth and the nose.

News about emergency certificates were published on M.O. 385 on May the 13^th.

According to the new provisions, the economic operators who suffered from the effects of the SAR-Cov2 pandemic in april, can benefit from the certificate of emergency TYPE 2 (yellow) situations following the completion of a self-declaration. The statement must indicate that there is a decrease in revenues of at least 25% in March or April 2020 compared to the average for January and February 2020.

But companies now have another statement available to get the certificate of emergency situations. In fact, the new declaration used only adds the month April 2020 (along with March), as the month in which the decrease in income/income achieved is decreased by more than 25% compared to the average income of January-February 2020.

As they did not know how to deal with the technically unemployed employees, employers were clarified on Friday evening, after the publication of Decree 92/2020, which are the facilities they can benefit from.

In this article, we have summarized the main provisions contained in the order 92/2020 published in the Official Journal 459/29 May 2020, on the establishment of active support measures for employees and employers in the context of the epidemiological situation caused by the spread of SAR-Cov-2 coronavirus, as well as for the amendment of certain regulatory acts.

In the Official Gazette n. 245/21.05.2020 has been published the law n. 62/2020 on the concession of structures in rent during the state of emergency. It should be noted that the law grants facilities to both tenants and lockers in order to stimulate negotiations between the parties so that an agreement can be reached for the benefit of both parties.

A law adopted late, we hope, however, will help many companies, including freelancers, for the short term by eliminating the pressure for the fulfilment of certain financial obligations.

According to the decree, tenants can postpone payment of rent on request, without interest and penalty, for the use of registered buildings such as offices, construction sites or houses.

The Government has again extended the deadline for the submission of the single tax and contribution declaration for 2020 for the income of PFA and other independent individuals, copyright, rent, dividends and other taxpayers.

The new deadline for submitting the single declaration is 30 June 2020, as the Ministry of Finance informed. The deadline was initially May the 25^th.

Those who pay taxes and contributions for 2019 by 30 June will also benefit from reductions in the amount of income tax, social security contributions and health insurance contributions, due on the revenues achieved in 2019.

More specifically, the following:

In the Official Gazette n. 311/14.04.2020 was published the Decree no. 240/14.04.2020 on the extension of the emergency situation on Romanian territory for a period of 30 days from 15.04.2020.

In some areas of activity, the new decree provides for changes to the special measures adopted by Decree no. 16.03.2020 on the establishment of a state of emergency on Romanian territory, thus facilitating the relationship with some public institutions.

This measure concerns the activity of the National Trade Register which, from the date of the emergency declaration has registered the reuests related to legal entities and natural persons only upon request for registration of the information in electronic form, attached or logically associated with the electronic signature.

Expected by an entire country, the extension of the emergency situation was published on 14 April 2020 in the Official Gazette of Romania n. 311, by decree of the President of Romania n. 240.

As of 15 April 2020, the state of emergency will be extended by 30 days throughout Romania. It had been established previously, even for a period of 30 days, from 16 March 2020.

The new decree supplements the first emergency measures directly applicable in a number of sectors. In this article we will focus only on those that have an impact on the business environment. We will report them below, structured on areas, as they were also included in the regulatory document.

In the economic field

• the validity of documents issued by public authorities which expire during the state of emergency is maintained;

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In the context of the new economic crisis, the support programme for small and medium-sized enterprises, which aims to grant state facilities for loans granted by credit institutions, was approved. This Regulation was published in the Official Journal, on 4 April, through OUG No. 42.

What do these structures refer to?

The last day of school introduced a new decree amending and supplementing Law 19/2020 on parental leave to supervise children in the event of temporary closure of educational establishments (details of the previous provisions are here). This is the Government Emergency Ordinance No. 41, published in the Official Gazette No. 282 of 03.04.2020.

The new amendments concern:

The Government Ordinance no. 32/2020 has introduced some changes regarding the payment of compensation to freelance professionals (as regulated by the Article 3(2) of the law 287/2009 on the Civil Code) which had to stop the activity due to the effects of SAR-Cov-2 coronavirus.

In short, the new previsions are reformulating the following new rules:

On Monday evening, after long waiting, the Emergency Ordinance on the modification and completion of the OUG No. 30/2020 was published in the Official Journal, which refers to the protection that the State will guarantee to the employees during the state of emergency, in the event of suspension of individual employment contracts, at the initiative of the employer, in accordance with Article 52 (1) (c) of Law 53/2003 – Labour Code. Shortly, we are talking about the ordered regulation governing the technical unemployment during the SAR-cov-2 crisis.

As we intended, but did not hope, the ordinance was in support of all employees affected by the spread of SAR-virus cov-2, eliminating the differentiation between employees whose employers have been forced to close down completely or partially on the basis of the decisions taken by the public authorities and those who have been indirectly affected by the measures taken.

According to a Government Ordinance (GEO 33) published this evening (30.03.2020) in the Official Gazette, companies will be able to benefit from discounts if they pay their taxes on time.

Thus, taxpayers paying corporate income tax, regardless of the tax return system, who pay their tax due for the first quarter of 2020, respectively for the prepayment for the same quarter, until April 25, 2020 inclusively, benefit from a 5% or 10% discount, calculated on the income tax due. Microenterprises also benefit from this facility, respectively a 10% discount.

We present below the article: 

In the recent days we have received many questions from customers, partners, collaborators, but also from people outside our contacts, on how anti-crisis measures are applied within companies.

In order to cope with the large number of requests, but also because most of the questions are repeated, we are drawing here a list of quick questions and answers, grouped by category, a mini-guide to help companies and employees navigate more easily through this difficult period. Consider it a crisis survival kit.

This evening (25th of March 2020) the order for issuing the Emergency Certificates for the companies whose activity has been affected by the SAR-cov-2 pandemic was published in the Official Gazette.

Which are the rules?

• the Emergency Certificates (EC) will be issued by the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment;

• the Certificates are released, on the basis of the applicants’ request, which are the business entities affected by the SAR-cov-2 pandemic;

• The applicants are the legally authorised persons of the business entities under the provisions of OUG 30/2020 and OUG 29/2020, respectively:

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In the context of the economic crisis caused by the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), many companies are forced to apply cost-cutting measures and to reduce the activity. In this context the Romanian Government adopted on March 21 an Emergency Ordinance (no. 30/2020) to establish some measures in the field of social protection. The decree also brings some additions to the temporary suspension of the individual employment contract, at the initiative of the employer, known in common language as “technical unemployment”.

Technical unemployment existed also until now, being governed by the Labor Code which, in Article 53, contains provisions related to the interruption or reduction of the employer’s activity:

“Article 2 53

On the 16 March 2020, the President of Romania signed the decree to establish the State of Emergency in Romanian for a period of 30 days.

Among the measures introduces by the new regulations, the Article 45 is stating the following:

“Al.1. During the state of emergency, the work of the National Office of the Trade Register and of the regional offices of the Trade Regiater continues with regard to the registration of changes related to the legal entities and rnatural persons registered in the Trade Register. These registrations will be carried out by electronic means, based on the changes requests and additional documents deposited in electronic form, with the electronic signature incorporated.

The Romanian Government adopted, through the Emergency Ordinance, a series of measures in the field of social protection in the context of the epidemiological situation caused by the spread of SAR-CoV-2 coronavirus.

Thus, Amendments and additions have been made to Act 19/2020 on the granting of leave to parents for child supervision in the event of temporary closure of educational establishments, in the sense that:

• the notion of “parent” for the purposes of the law has been clarified;

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The Romanian government today came up with a package of measures to mitigate the negative effects of the crisis caused by the new coronavirus.

According to the announcement made by Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, those measures were taken that were considered absolutely necessary to support the employees and employers affected by the epidemic Coronavirus, such as: Government support for technical unemployment costs for employees, on the basis of specific conditions, increase in the budget allocated for the settlement of sick leave, and credit for SMEs, for investment and securing working capital.

Many companies are or will soon be severely affected by the spread of SAR-CoV-2 coronavirus. Some companies will probably be in a position to adopt the solution of technical unemployment, which involves temporary cessation of activity, i.e. temporary suspension of employment, but also payment of minimum 75% of the basic salary.