Country-specific updates: Romania

Legislative changes

The following changes have been brought to the Romanian Fiscal Code in December 2020:

• the taxable base may be adjusted for amounts related to supplies of goods / provision of services to individuals / natural persons and not collected if the supplier proves that commercial/ court actions were initiated to recover such amounts (depending on the level of uncollected amount);
• input VAT related to purchases of alcoholic drinks or tobacco products may be deducted if the goods are to be further granted free of charge, during promotional campaigns aimed to increase sales, or if used in the normal course of business;
• taxpayers have the possibility to exercise the deductibility right for corrected invoices issued by a supplier voluntarily or further to a tax inspection, even if the statute of limitation period lapsed for the transaction to which the corrected invoice relates to; deduction right arising from such corrected invoice(s) can be exercised within maximum 1 (one) year since receipt of the correction invoice(s);
• negative VAT amounts assessed by the tax authorities through decisions suspended in court cannot be taken into account when determining the negative VAT amount to be claimed for refund;
• conditions imposed for import VAT deferment were amended – additional information shall be provided if such topic present interest;
• simplification measures (applicability of the reverse charge mechanism) are extended for the supply of natural gas, if certain conditions are met;
• VAT exemption continues to apply for:
  • supply of medical devices used for vitro diagnosis of COVID-19, vaccines against COVID-19 as well as services related to COVID-19 vaccination process and testing;
  • intracommunity acquisitions of Remdesivir, performed by 31st December 2022, based on the agreement concluded between European Commission and pharmaceutical company Gilead for the supply of Veklury (commercial name of Remdesivir).

DLA Piper comment: Businesses operating in Romania should assess whether the above changes impact their supply chain and/or structure.