deRenata Ban March 23, 2020

Anti-crisis measures for the economy. What do you need to know?

Given the multitude of new regulations, press releases and confusion created in the media, we are resuming the main economic and fiscal-budgetary measures regulated by the 21th of March 2020.

The concrete measures established by the Government through the 29/2020 Emergency Decision are the following:

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Given the multitude of new regulations, press releases and confusion created in the media, we are resuming the main economic and fiscal-budgetary measures regulated by the 21th of March 2020.

The concrete measures established by the Government through the 29/2020 Emergency Decision are the following:

Given the multitude of new regulations, press releases and confusion created in the media, we are resuming the main economic and fiscal-budgetary measures regulated by the 21th of March 2020.

The concrete measures established by the Government through the 29/2020 Emergency Decision are the following:

  • the new payment deadline for tax liabilities due from the 21th of March 2020 is 30 days after the end of the State of Emergency (if no extensions to the emergency period occurs, the deadline for tax obligations would be the 15th of May) and during this period these are not considered to be past tax liabilities; in other words, taxpayers benefit from a deferral (not exemption!) upon payment of fees, the new time limit being 30 days after the end of the state of emergency.
  • suspension of enforcement measures related to budgetary debts, except for those applicable for the recovery of budgetary claims established by judicial decisions in criminal matters;
  • local taxes: The tax on buildings, land and means of transport shall benefit from the bonus established by the local Council if it is paid in full by 30 June 2020;
  • during the State of Emergency, both small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as professions carrying out services of public interest (notaries, lawyers, executors), family doctor cabinets and dental cabinets as well as national sports federations and sports clubs which have ceased their activity wholly or partially on the basis of decisions issued by the authorities and which hold the emergency situation certificate:
    • are benefiting from the postponement of payment for utilities as well as the postponement on payment of the rent for the building where they have the registered office or a secondary establishment. The criteria for determining the beneficiaries of this measure are set by Executive decision (this normative act does not exist yet, it will be adopted at a later date).
    • they may invoke the force majeure, for other contracts in progress, only if they prove that they have tried to renegotiate the contract in order to adapt their terms to the current conditions (except for professions carrying out services of public interest).
  • there will be facilities granted to small and medium-sized enterprises in respect of certain categories of credit, such as investment and working capital financing (we will write a separate article detailing the conditions for obtaining these loans)
  • companies that apply the system of reporting and paying annual income tax, with quarterly advance payments, can make quarterly advance payments for 2020, at the level of the amount resulting from the calculation of current profit tax, and not at one quarter of the profit tax due for the previous year. This calculation shall be kept for the whole year 2020.
  • the deadline for the submission of the notification on the possibility of avoiding the opening of insolvency proceedings by restructuring budgetary obligations has been extended until 31st of July 2020, and the actual application can be submitted by 30th of October;
  • the time limit for submission of the declaration on the beneficial owner is extended by 3 months from the date of the end of the state of emergency, and during the state of emergency the lodging of this declaration is suspended.

Other measures to combat the effects of COVID-19 which were also published in the Official Gazette on 21 March (MO No 230 and MO No 231), relate to:

  • giving parents extra time off in case of school closures
  • social protection measures for employees in case of total or partial closure of activity.

Both pieces of legislation contain substantially amended provisions compared to previous communications. We come back with a separate Article for each of these measures.

Caution! Measures which had been announced initially but finally NOT ADOPTED:

  • The tax declarations, which are due by March 25, 2020, have to be submitted by that date, without there being any facility to postpone their submission, as initially stated in the ANAF press release on March 16. However, because there will be companies that will have difficulties submitting tax returns within 25 March due to the confusion created by the new communication of 21 March, The Finance Ministry and ANAF said that all exceptional cases, justified by delays in the submission of statements, will be treated with all the openness and leniency stipulated by the law.

  • The measure which stipulated that during the time Romania was in an emergency state, tax inspections and anti-fraud checks on taxpayers will be suspended (except for checks that can be carried out at a distance as well as tax evasion where there are indications) has not been adopted. In conclusion, taxpayers can continue to expect tax inspections and controls.

  • other facilities promised in the various projects and communications, which were not addpeted in any kind of law or regulation are: facilitations for the April and May tax maturities and the procedure for the rapid refund of VAT.

Currently we don’t know whether these measures will be included in other future normative acts, or the Executive has decided to give up on their application.