New legislative amendments regarding RO e-Invoice, RO e-VAT, profit tax, income tax, accounting law, excise duties and RO e-Transport

The takeaway 

Government Emergency Ordinance (GEO) no. 138/2024 amending RO e-Invoice, RO e-VAT, profit tax, income tax, accounting law, excise duties and RO e-Transport. 

In detail 

I. RO e-Invoice 

The contents of the RO e-invoice for business-to-government (B2G) transactions must include the corresponding Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) codes from the public procurement nomenclature. 

Simplified invoices will be subject to mandatory electronic invoicing in business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) relations, but fiscal receipts that meet the conditions of a simplified invoice are exempted. 

Intra-Community supplies of goods are not subject to mandatory electronic invoicing in B2B relations. For B2C transactions, if the beneficiary does not identify themself through a tax identification code, the invoice can be drawn up using a code consisting of 13 zero digits. 

II. RO e-VAT 

The application of sanctions for non-compliance with RO e-VAT has been postponed until 1 July 2025. 

III. VAT 

In the event that taxable persons make purchases for which they deduct VAT, to achieve investment objectives within public or social interest programmes, financed from public funds, which, after receipt, they hand over to the beneficiary of the investment objective based on a protocol, they must issue a self-invoice in which the related VAT self-collection is highlighted.

Simplified invoices must also contain the beneficiary’s VAT registration code or tax identification code if it is a taxable person or a non-taxable legal person. 

For operations for which the reverse charge mechanism is applied according to art. 331 of the Fiscal Code, the obligation has been introduced for the beneficiary to issue a self-invoice for the adjustment of the VAT tax base and the highlighting of the deductible tax, by the fifteenth day of the month following that in which the events generating the tax adjustment occurred according to art. 287 letters a)-c) and e), in the event that, by that date, the supplier/provider has not issued the correction invoice. 

IV. Profit tax 

Clarifications have been provided regarding the mechanism for allocating the total excess costs of the deferred debt for transactions/operations carried out with unaffiliated persons and/or with affiliated persons that finance the acquisition/production of fixed assets under construction/assets established according to art. 181 para. (3) and (12) and art. 183 para. (2) and (9) of the Fiscal Code. 

According to GEO no. 138/2024, credit institutions and taxpayers carrying out activities in the oil and natural gas sectors, which pay additional taxes on turnover, at the same time as the income tax, will be exempted from paying the minimum turnover tax to avoid double taxation. 

In the case of a fiscal group, the provisions of art. 461 (Additional tax for credit institutions) and art. 462 (Additional tax for legal entities carrying out activities in the oil and natural gas sectors) are applied accordingly by members, depending on their individual situation. Starting with the fiscal year 2025 (or with the amended year starting in 2025), the references in art. 402 to the provisions of art. 183 para. (2) and (9) are deemed to be made by the provisions of art. 462 para. (2) and (7) of the Fiscal Code. All the above provisions apply as of the date of publication of GEO no. 138/2024.

V. Income tax 

By way of exception to the rule of withholding tax on income from the transfer of the use of goods, in the case of income from rent paid exclusively in kind, as well as for of amounts representing a guarantee used for the payment of rent established by contract, the owner, usufructuary or other legal holder is obliged to establish the annual net income by deducting from the gross income the expenses determined by applying the 20% rate on the gross income, as well as to calculate and pay the income tax. 

The annual tax due is established by submitting the Single Declaration on income tax and social contributions due by individuals. 

Payers of income from the transfer of the use of goods, legal persons or other entities that are obliged to keep accounting records, are obliged to issue, at the request of the owner, usufructuary or other legal holder, income beneficiary, a document certifying the amount of income tax withheld and paid. 

Income received by individuals from the transfer of a possession noted in the land register is classified as non-taxable income if the transfer is made by acts due to death, or in the category of taxable income from other sources if the transfer is made by acts between the living. Clarifications are made regarding the tax treatment applicable to pension income obtained from abroad. Pension income, other than privately administered, optional or occupational pensions, is subject to taxation by applying the tax rate of 10% on the gross annual income reduced by the non-taxable monthly amount of RON 3,000. These rules are also applicable to income from privately managed, voluntary or occupational pensions if individuals do not have documents regarding the net contributions to the respective funds. 

VI. Accounting Law 

GEO no. 138/2024 clarified the following aspects: 

• The trial balance is prepared monthly to verify the correct accounting recording of the operations performed. 

• Public institutions will have to prepare quarterly and annual financial statements, according to the rules developed by the Ministry of Finance, and keep them for 10 years. 

• The deadline for submitting annual financial statements is 31 May or 30 April – depending on the category of the reporting entity – of the financial year following the reporting one and will no longer be expressed in days (150/120 days as of the close of the financial year). If the above dates are non-working days, the last reporting day is the first working day following them. Entities that have opted for a financial year different from the calendar year have to submit their annual financial statements within 150 calendar days as of the end of the chosen financial year, calculated starting as of the date following the one to which the respective annual financial statements refer.

In addition, starting from 1 January 2026, the forms in the scope of reporting financial statements, financial statements reports, notes and other documents accompanying financial statements to public institutions have to be submitted exclusively in electronic format. 

As of the financial year 2025, the annual financial statements/accounting reports have to be submitted only in electronic format according to the specifications published on the portal of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF). Entities that have chosen a financial year different from the calendar year have to apply the provisions of the annual financial statements corresponding to the first chosen financial year beginning after 1 January 2025.

VII. Excise duties 

As in the case of electricity, an entity that produces natural gas for its own consumption will be considered both a producer and a final consumer from the perspective of excise duty legislation. For authorised suppliers of natural gas or electricity, the deadline for payment of excise duties to the state budget is the twenty-fifth day of the month following that in which the invoicing to the final consumer or self-consumption took place. 

As of 1 February 2025, the registered recipient presenting a high tax risk is required to provide a guarantee equivalent to 120% of the excise duties related to the quantity of excisable products that it intends to receive according to the self-declaration. The guarantee has to be provided in accordance with the procedure established by a future ANAF Order issued within 60 days as of the date of entry into force of GEO no. 138/2024. 

At least three calendar days before the exhaustion of the quantity of excise goods entered in the self-declaration, the registered consignee presenting a high tax risk is obliged to notify the competent authority of this fact. The criteria for assessing the tax risk to determine the registered consignees presenting a high tax risk, as well as the procedure for monitoring and controlling the activity carried out by them, will be established later by a joint order of the President of ANAF and the President of the Romanian Customs Authority issued within 30 days as of the date of entry into force of GEO no. 138/2024. Economic operators assessed according to that order as presenting a high tax risk will be notified to this effect by the competent authority. If, during 36 consecutive months from the date of submission of the first self-declaration, the registered consignee does not register outstanding tax obligations to the consolidated state budget, for which the execution of the guarantee and forced execution were ordered, it will be considered that it no longer presents a high tax risk.

Exceptions to the general rules regarding the revocation of the registered consignee authorization are introduced. 

Thus, upon the proposal of the control bodies, the competent authority revokes the registered consignee authorisation for holders presenting a high tax risk, within a maximum of three calendar days as of the date of receipt of the revocation proposal, when its holder: 

1. does not comply with the provisions regarding the 120% guarantee;

2. exceeds the quantity of excisable products entered in the self-declaration. 

As of 1 February 2025, economic operators registered with the competent authority for the distribution and wholesale trade without storage of alcoholic beverages, processed tobacco and energy products, which present a high tax risk and which own and wish to trade excise goods located in a tax warehouse belonging to a third party, are required to submit a self-declaration on the quantity of excise goods they intend to release for consumption.

The model, content of the declaration and the method of declaration are established by ANAF order. 

The new rules implemented at the level of registered recipients presenting a high tax risk (for example, the provision of a guarantee at the level of 120% of the value of excise duties related to the quantity of excise goods mentioned in the self-declaration, the conditions for revocation of the marketing certificate, notification to the authorities) apply similarly to these economic operators presenting a high tax risk. 

Also, new measures have been introduced for non-compliance with the new legislative provisions, which enter into force on 1 February 2025 and which consist of the application of a contravention measure to confiscate the products or the amounts resulting from their sale, but which can also be classified as crimes depending on the violation of the corresponding articles of law. 

VIII. RO e-Transport 

The application of contravention measures has been postponed for economic operators obliged to obtain unique transport identification codes but hold the status of authorised economic operator. In their case, the contravention measures will apply as of 31 March 2025 for the acts committed and identified as of that date. 

Source: [Emergency Ordinance no. 138/2024 for the amendment and completion of certain normative acts in the fiscal-budgetary field, as well as for the regulation of other measures, published in the Official Gazette no. 1222, dated 5 December 2024]