On Friday, the government approved the emergency ordinance for the amendment of some normative acts in the field of e-Transport, e-VAT and e-Invoice, which provides, among other things, the extension by six months of the deadline for the application of e-VAT, announced the Minister of Finance, Marcel Boloş, at the end of the Executive session.
“Today, the amendments to the e-VAT mechanism were adopted, which provides for six months, until January 1, 2025, the extension of the period in which VAT difference notices, as well as supporting notices, will not be charged to taxpayers. In this way, the Ministry of Finance has the opportunity to analyze this mechanism and where the difference between what is submitted to the Tax Office and the notes submitted by taxpayers results. We approved the establishment of the e-TVA Committee together with the representatives from the business environment, from ANAF, to evaluate if we can have other proposals for measures to improve this mechanism“, said Marcel Boloş at the end of the government meeting.
He estimates the receipts from VAT to the state budget at 120 billion lei this year. “It is our main tax from which all other categories of public services are financed, from schools, hospitals, health facilities and social assistance rights, including pensions. It is, as I said, the tax that we have to take care of. It does not constitute a cost for small and medium enterprises, for companies in Romania. It is a neutral tax. It does not affect the operating costs of the companies”, said the FinMin.
The Minister of Finance also specified that the e-VAT mechanism is necessary because our country has the obligation to reduce the VAT gap by 5%, according to the PNRR, from 2025. At the same time, Romania must align itself with the OECD standards which provide that the authorities fiscal, in the relationship with taxpayers, to work with pre-filled tax and tax declarations.
“Why do we need e-VAT? Because we have an obligation to reduce the VAT gap by five percentage points, according to the PNRR, starting in 2025. We must align ourselves with the objectives and OECD standards that provide that the tax authorities, in the relationship with taxpayers, work with tax declarations and pre-filled fees. This is the future of tax administrations, namely the one in which the information on taxes and fees can be found in these pre-completed statements, on which we also worked within the e-TVA mechanism”, Boloş emphasized.
He also said that the emergency ordinance also provides “the extension from 5 days to 20 days for the information from the completed account”.
“The VAT supporting note was repealed and replaced with the compliance notice and it was added that the compliance notice will not be used when there are material errors, inadvertences in the databases. It is the same as we did with e-Invoice. A last important point was the one related to the review of contraventions. They were reduced and the legal provisions for preventive measures were introduced, so that, being a new mechanism, we can take these measures when we identify that there are situations regarding tax evasion”, Boloş added.
The Finance Minister pointed out that “it is a package of measures to digitize Romania”.
“Along with e-Invoice, e-VAT, RO e-Property is also being prepared. He will have a discussion with the business environment. In preparation is the Single Smart Declaration for PFA. The anti-fraud modules for the organization of the fiscal and anti-fraud inspection are also being prepared,” he announced. Anti-fraud modules will enter pilot testing from August 1, the Minister of Finance added.
The fine point, frozen
According to this emergency ordinance for the modification of some normative acts in the field of e-Transport, e-VAT and e-Invoice, as well as for the regulation of some fiscal-budgetary measures, to protect the purchasing power of employees with the minimum wage on the economy, the Government modified the regulations regarding the application of deductibility for the granting of salary benefits.
Thus, for the granting of the fiscal facility regarding the non-taxation and non-inclusion in the calculation base of the mandatory social contributions of the amount of 300 lei/month, the monthly ceiling of 4,000 lei representing gross income from wages and salaries will be adjusted.
More precisely, the counter value of the meal vouchers, respectively the food allowance, as the case may be, granted according to the law, for the period July-December 2024, will be excluded from its calculation.
The decision is taken by the Government in the context of the increase of the minimum wage in the economy, starting with June 1, from 3,300 lei to 3,700 lei and the establishment of the non-taxation facility of 300 lei. Also, the normative act establishes that until December 31, 2024, the fine point will be in the amount of 165 lei.
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