Introducing e-VAT, a summary of the most important provisions of the amended Ordinance

On 21^st of June 2024, the Romanian Government has published Emergency Ordinance no. 70/2024 (the “Ordinance”) with the purpose of implementing and use of the pre-filled RO e-VAT return (the “e-VAT return”), with applicability starting 1 July 2024. Following a strong opposition from the business and professional environment regarding the short timeframe for implementation and possible negative impacts for Romanian entrepreneurs, the Romanian Government has amended the Ordinance on Friday, 28 June 2024, by publishing Emergency Ordinance no. 87/2024, on the same day, in the Official Gazette.

An opinion by Theodor Artenie and Carmen Mazilu from Noerr Romania.

We present a summary of the most important provisions of the amended Ordinance that the Romanian companies should acknowledge and prepare for in the near future.

Starting with 1 August 2024:

The e-VAT return is implemented by all taxable persons registered for VAT purposes in Romania (including non-residents registered for VAT purposes in Romania), for transactions carried out starting July 2024
The e-TVA return is sent by the tax authorities, by electronic means, to taxable persons registered for VAT purposes, until the 5^th of the month following the legal deadline for submitting the VAT return, for each fiscal reporting period (i.e. month or quarter);
The tax authorities fill in the e-VAT return using the information gathered from other returns and reports submitted by the taxpayers, such as RO e-invoice, RO e-Transport, RO e-SAF-T, customs system, RO e-Seal, RO e-Electronic cash registers;
In case there are differences higher than 20% or RON 5,000 between the VAT values from the e-VAT return and the VAT return submitted by the taxpayer, the tax authorities will notify the taxpayer in this respect until the 5^th of the month following the legal deadline for submitting the VAT return;

Starting with 1 January 2025:

The taxpayer has the obligation to respond to the notification and explain the differences, within 20 days from the receipt of the notification from the tax authorities
The tax authorities analyse the response received from the taxpayers and order legal measures, as case may be. These may consist of, for example, further verifications of the taxpayers or initiation of a VAT audit;
If the taxpayers fail to respond to the notification and/or explain the differences, they:
are liable to a fine between RON 1,000 and RON 10,000, depending on the size of the taxpayer (large, medium or small), and
they are included in the list of high risk taxpayers, which means that they will be under the scrutiny of the tax authorities and will increase the chances for a tax audit and VAT refunds cannot be performed without VAT audit.