FISCAL MEASURES DURING COVID 19 Image

 

FISCAL MEASURES DURING COVID 19

 
In the context of the COVID 19 epidemic, some Emergency Ordinances have been published, through which the government initiates both fiscal and economic measures in order to support the business environment.
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Key points:
The Emergency Ordinance regulates a series of fiscal measures consisting mainly of:
  1. postponing the payment of the fiscal obligations due during the state of emergency, up to a period of 30 days from its end, without liability for interest and late payment penalties and for certain local taxes due from March 31, 2020 until June 30, 2020;
  2. changes regarding the anticipated profit tax with quarterly payments;
  3. suspension / non-start of the forced execution procedure for certain budgetary debts,  during the state of emergency;
  4. extension of certain deadlines for the restructuring plans applicable according to Government Ordinance no. 6/2019.
 
Fiscal measures:
  •  The fiscal statements related to February and to tax on profit for the year 2019 are submitted until 25 March 2020;
  •  All the main tax obligations owed by the taxpayers during the state of emergency are deferred to payment without interest or delay penalties, until the expiration of a period of 30 days from the date when the state of emergency ceases. These main tax obligations are not considered as outstanding tax obligations, according to the Fiscal Procedure Code.
  •  Are suspended the measures of enforced execution by appropriation of the budgetary debts, and no new measures will be initiated as well, except for the enforced executions that are applied for the recovery of the budgetary debts established by judicial decisions pronounced in criminal matters;
  •  The quarterly advance payments of the annual profit tax for 2020 can be made at the value of the current quarterly tax calculation, and the methodology for calculating the profit tax remains the same for the whole of 2020. For taxpayers who have opted for a fiscal year different from the calendar year, the rule applies both for the remaining period of fiscal year 2019 and for 2020;
  • The payment period for buildings, land and means of transport tax for all taxpayers was extended from March 31, 2020 to June 30, 2020, while taxpayers will still be able to benefit from a 10% reduction of these taxes if the amounts due are properly paid until June 30, 2020
The Emergency Ordinance also extends the deadlines for submitting the notification regarding the intention of the taxpayers to benefit from the restructuring of the fiscal obligations in accordance with the provisions of the Government Ordinance no. 6/2019 regarding the establishment of the fiscal facilities until July 31, 2020 and for the submission of the application for restructuring the fiscal obligations according to the same ordinance until October 30, 2020.
These fiscal measures shall cease within 30 days of the cessation of the state of emergency.

Measures for small and medium enterprises:
  •  SMEs can contract loans guaranteed by the state for investments in a proportion of maximum 80% (for 120 months) or working capital (for 36 months), in the amount of 10 million RON per beneficiary, but if they register outstanding fiscal obligations, there is the obligation to pay them from the contracted credit;
  •  For loans granted to micro or small businesses, 100% of the interest related to credits / lines of credit for financing working capital and loans for investments is subsidized. The subsidy period is from the moment of granting the loan until March 31, 2021;
  •  the debtors can restructure their budgetary obligations if they notify the competent fiscal body between February 1 - July 31, 2020 and submit the restructuring request until October 30, 2020;
  •  during the state of emergency, the SMEs, lawyers, notaries and judicial executors, the offices of family doctors and dentists, the national sports federations and sports clubs that have stopped their activity in whole or in part and who hold the emergency situation certificate issued by the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment, they benefit from the deferred payment of rents and utilities (electricity, natural gas, water, telephony, internet) and will not owe penalties arising from the contracts concluded with the public authorities, for the building destined for headquarters. social and / or secondary offices;
  •  the deadline for submitting the declaration regarding the real beneficiary, is extended by three months from the date of cessation of the state of emergency;
  •  granting paid days off for one of the parents in the situation of closing the educational units. The compensation paid will be 75% of the basic salary, but not more than 4072 gross RON (0.75 * 5429 RON). The employer will recover the compensation paid to the employee, by request submitted to the Agencies for Employment, within 60 days from the date of the documentation submission.
  •  Insertion incentives and benefits of social assistance will be granted social assistance, family and child allowances, heating aid, etc.; the system of transmission by electronic mail, of the applications and documents for granting the benefits of social assistance will be implemented;

Technical unemployment
  •  the employers who partially or totally interrupt their activity, and implicitly have the inability to pay the wages, can initiate the suspension of the individual employment contract for employees, according to art. 52, paragraph (1) letter c, the Labor Code
  •  Employees will receive an allowance of 75% of the basic salary, but not more than 75% of the average gross wage per economy (4072 gross lei - 0.75 * 5429 lei);
  • Unemployment allowance is supported from the Unemployment Insurance Budget;
  • Employers who discontinue their activity in whole or in part based on the decisions issued by the competent public authorities according to the law, during the period of emergency state decreed, and hold the certificate of emergency situations issued by the Ministry of Economy, benefit from the payment of compensation for all employees who, on the date the coming into force of the emergency ordinance, they have active labor contracts;
  •  For the employers who reduce their activity as a result of the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic and do not have the financial capacity to pay all the salaries of their employees, the allowance is granted for a maximum of 75% of the employees, who, at the date of entry into force of the emergency ordinance, have active employment contracts. For these companies, the payment will be made based on a declaration on their own responsibility. From the declaration on its own responsibility it must be shown that the employer records a decrease of the collection from the month before, with a percentage of at least 25% compared to the average of the collection from January to February 2020 and that he has no financial capacity to pay all employees.