New reporting process for payment service providers in the CESOP System: Law no. 33/2024

The takeaway

Following the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in case C-717/19 Boehringer Ingelheim, Law no. 33/2024 introduced changes to the VAT provisions regarding the tax base adjustment after delivery with price reductions. It is also transposed into the national legislation Council Directive (EU) 2020/284 amending Directive 2006/112/EC for the introduction of certain obligations for payment service providers to keep records relating to cross-border payments and data on the beneficiaries of the payments and to make them available to the tax authorities to combat VAT fraud in the e-commerce sector (the so-called CESOP Directive). 

Unless otherwise stipulated, the provisions of the Law enter into force three days after the date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania.

In detail 

Law no. 33/2024 introduced the following amendments and additions to the Fiscal Code:

• In the area of VAT 

As a result of the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in case C-717/19 Boehringer Ingelheim, the conditioning on the adjustment of the VAT tax base for price reductions granted is removed after the delivery of goods or the provision of services directly to customers. 

Thus, the VAT tax base can be reduced even in the case of granting indirect discounts. It is stipulated that, to reflect these types of discounts, a centralizing document will be issued to adjust the tax base for each fiscal period. 

The deadline for submitting special declarations related to the special regimes provided for in arts. 314, 315 and 3152 of the Fiscal Code is established as the last calendar day of the month, even if it is not a working day. 

The possibility of appointing an authorised tax representative is eliminated in the case of the operations provided for in art. 293 para. (1) lit. m) of the Fiscal Code for persons not established and not registered for VAT purposes in Romania which import goods into Romania for subsequent intra-community delivery. 

In these cases, taxable persons will be obliged to register for VAT purposes in Romania (either directly or through a tax representative if they are established on the territory of the European Union; or compulsorily through a tax representative if they are established outside the European Union). 

Law no. 33/2024 introduced into the Fiscal Code the obligation to report in the Central Electronic System of Payments –(CESOP): 

• Payment service providers will have to keep records of the payees and payments in connection with the payment services they provide for reporting in quarterly data on cross-border payments and their beneficiaries in the CESOP when certain conditions are met, such as: 

  • the payments are cross-border in nature; 

  • more than 25 cross-border payments have been made to the same payee in a calendar quarter. 

• The obligation to keep records relating to cross-border payments rests with the payee’s payment service provider if it is located in a Member State. If none of the payee’s payment service providers are located in a Member State, the obligation to keep records relating to cross-border payments rests with the payer’s payment service provider. Payment service providers are required to keep records of cross-border payments for a period of three calendar years as of the end of the calendar year of the payment date. 

• Data on cross-border payments and their beneficiaries must be submitted to the CEPOS by means of a standard form no later than the end of the month following the calendar quarter to which the information relates. 

• The procedure regarding the provision of data in the CEPOS is to be approved by order of the president of the National Fiscal Administration Agency. 

• In the area of excise duties 

For the consumption of natural gas used to maintain the capacity to transport and distribute natural gas, within the limits established by the regulatory authority in the field, there is no obligation to pay excise duties. 

Source: [Law no. 33/2024 for the amendment and completion of the Fiscal Code, published in the Official Gazette no. 179 dated 5 March 2024]