The so-called Catalog of companies, in which only companies are now optionally registered, would become mandatory for both companies and PFAs and individual and family businesses (II and IF), according to a draft recently initiated at the Senate. These entities will have to pay annual amounts to the Chamber of Commerce and industry of Romania (CCIR). At the same time, companies will have an additional obligation – the legal representative will have to obtain a special certificate from the authorities. Both obligations will have to be ticked for companies to be able to file annual financial statements.
The recently registered draft law proposes to transform the optional registration in the companies Catalog into an obligation that covers not only companies, but also PFAs, IFIs and IFIs.
The catalog of companies will be organized and managed by CCIR and the territorial chambers of commerce, not just the latter, as now, and will be public. Registration in the catalog will be made by professionals within 15 days of its establishment, through a methodology given by CCIR, and existing professionals will have 90 days to register. Subsequently, any change in the Trade Register will have to be reflected, at the request of professionals, in the companies Catalog.
The contribution will be determined according to the size of the business:
- 100 euro/year for large enterprises;
- 75 euro/year for medium-sized enterprises;
- 50 euro/year for small businesses;
- 20 euro/year for micro-enterprises;
- 10 euro/year for PFA, II and IF.
According to the project, those amounts would be used in full “to finance support measures to stimulate, develop and internationalize business and to carry out studies and analyzes relevant to the business environment”. And the initiators detail that, “through the proposed platform, the CCIR and the county chambers will support both the Romanian state, by identifying in each county those companies that do not appear in the official statistics (implicitly, which do not have balance sheets submitted), and the business environment, by connecting the entrepreneurs to an unlimited database, of opportunities and resources, physically and online, globally.”
According to the project, those amounts would be used in full “to finance support measures to stimulate, develop and internationalize business and to carry out studies and analyzes relevant to the business environment”. And the initiators detail that, “through the proposed platform, the CCIR and the county chambers will support both the Romanian state, by identifying in each county those companies that do not appear in the official statistics (implicitly, which do not have balance sheets submitted), and the business environment, by connecting the entrepreneurs to an unlimited database, of opportunities and resources, physically and online, globally.”
Beyond the requirement of the companies Catalog, the proposal also includes an obligation for newly established professionals. Specifically, in the first year of its establishment and until the first financial statements are submitted, companies would be required to certify the management of their own activity through a special certificate obtained for a fee by the legal representative (PFA, II and if will be exempted from this obligation).
The person appointed to represent the firm must also fulfill several cumulative conditions, including:
- be psychologically fit, certified by specialized medical certificate;
- be a graduate of compulsory education;
- have not been convicted of fraudulent management offenses, abuse of trust, abuse of trust by defrauding creditors, simple bank, fraudulent bank, misappropriation of public tenders, forgery, Use of forgery, deception, embezzlement, lying testimony, bribery, for offenses under Title VIII – offenses and offenses under Law no. 31/1990 of companies, republished, as amended and supplemented, as well as for other offenses of a commercial or fiscal nature, condition attested by criminal record certificates, respectively, fiscal;
- a final decision on liability was not issued against him in accordance with Law no. 85/2014 on insolvency and insolvency prevention procedures, as subsequently amended and supplemented, at least five years before the date of the request.