As July 1, 2024 approaches, companies in Romania must prepare for a series of significant changes related to the e-Factura, e-Transport and e-TVA systems. If some changes were already known and were just waiting for their implementation – such as the 5 calendar day deadline for reporting invoices in e-Factura or the extension of e-Transport to international freight shipments, some appeared completely unexpectedly in the last days of June, being rapidly adopted by the Government through emergency ordinances: the extension of e-Factura to B2C transactions or the emergence of the e-TVA system, which majorly transforms the way of completing and submitting VAT statements for all companies that are obliged to declare and pay this taxes.

The deadline for reporting invoices in the national system will be 5 calendar days
From July 1, the deadline for sending invoices will be five calendar days (compared to five working days until June 30, 2024), but not later than 5 calendar days from the deadline provided in the Fiscal Code for issuing the invoice.

From the perspective of the issuers, failure to comply with the deadline for submitting invoices in the national RO e-Factura electronic invoice system constitutes a contravention and is sanctioned with a fine from 5,000 lei to 10,000 lei – for large taxpayers, with a fine from 2,500 lei to 5,000 lei – for medium taxpayers and with fines from 1,000 lei to 2,500 lei – for other legal entities, as well as for natural persons.

Additionally, from July 1, the issuer’s failure to transmit the invoice in RO e-Factura, as well as the recipient’s receipt and registration of an invoice issued and not reported in the national invoicing system, will be sanctioned. These acts constitute contraventions and will be sanctioned with a fine equal to 15% of the total value of the invoice.

From the perspective of applying fines for failure to submit invoices in the national RO e-Factura electronic invoice system, GEO 69/2024, recently published, brings an extremely important clarification: from July 1, fines will be applied only once for all invoices related to a month and not reported in the RO e-Factura system.

In the absence of this express specification, the method of sanctioning was ambiguous, and the provisions could be interpreted including in the sense in which the fines could have been applied punctually, that is, the inspectors should issue a fine for each invoice not reported in the e-Factura system.

From July 1, companies can optionally also report B2C invoices in e-Factura
GEO no. 69/2024, published in the Official Gazette on June 21, extends the use of the electronic invoicing system to transactions between companies and final consumers (B2C), which means that all taxable persons issuing invoices to consumers will have to report them in the RO system e-Factura. This new component of the national electronic invoicing system will be applied in two stages: optionally between July 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024, and compulsorily from January 1, 2025.

For B2C transactions, the same reporting rules will apply as for the other invoices for which there are reporting obligations (B2B and B2G): the deadline for submitting an invoice in the RO e-Factura system is 5 calendar days from the issuance of the invoice, but not more than 5 calendar days from the maximum term in which an invoice can be issued.

As in the case of B2B invoices, simplified invoices issued in the B2C relationship are also not declared in the e-Factura system.

The implementation of e-TVA also starts from July
Another ordinance published on June 21, GEO no. 70/2024, regulates the framework for the e-TVA system, which imposes a new fiscal procedure for the issuance of VAT returns starting with operations related to July 2024. Although it will enter into force from July 1, we will only see its actual implementation from August 2024, when the VAT declaration and payment deadlines for July transactions are met.

The new procedure applies to all VAT payers and involves a system in which ANAF will issue, based on the information and data available in computer systems such as e-Factura, SAF-T, e-Case de Marcat and similar, pre-filled VAT statements, which will be sent to the SPV of each taxpayer.

Taxpayers will receive the statements at the end of each fiscal period, by the 20th of the month following the one corresponding to the VAT fiscal period (month or quarter) and will have the obligation to check and adjust them within five days to reflect their situation real tax on VAT. Once all the reconciliations and checks are done, the taxpayers will submit the final VAT Statement by the 25th of the month at the latest.

Subsequently, if there are significant differences between the pre-completed statements and the final ones submitted by taxpayers, ANAF will send a notification to the SPV asking the companies to justify these inconsistencies.

The differences are considered significant if they cumulatively exceed two significance thresholds: the amounts have an absolute value of at least 1,000 lei and represent a percentage difference of at least 20% compared to the values ​​pre-filled by ANAF.

Upon receipt of this notification from the tax authorities, taxpayers will have 10 days to submit a new electronic form – “Justificatory note regarding RO and VAT differences” in the SPV, in which to explain and argue the differences in amounts.

The companies that will not send these supporting notes within the imposed period risk both fines between 2,000 lei and 10,000 lei, as well as indirect sanctions, in the context where the failure to submit these explanations will constitute a criterion of fiscal risk, so their absence will contribute to increasing the degree of risk that the company will register in the records of the tax authorities.

It is worth pointing out that although this new mechanism for drawing up VAT statements is applied starting with operations related to the month of July, with a declaration deadline in August, in the specific case of the new obligations aimed at justifying the significant differences identified by ANAF, a period of 90 of days from the publication of GEO no. 70/2024 in which they will not apply. Practically, the taxpayers will have to submit the supporting notes for the previous period, respectively July – August, only from September 19, from which date the two categories of sanctions detailed previously will be applicable.

Extensions to e-Transport from July
July 1st is the date when the extension of the reporting obligations in e-Transport, which covers the international transport of goods, will also be effectively implemented. As early as December of last year, the authorities imposed on companies, through GEO no. 115/2023, to obtain UIT codes for all international shipments of goods, which transit the territory of Romania, regardless of what types of goods are transported. The obligation, although it entered into force immediately, was nevertheless timed so that the penalty regime for its violation would apply approximately six months later – from 1 July 2024, thus giving companies a period of time to adapt internal procedures to comply with new requirements.

Ordinance 115/2023 also required transport operators to equip their vehicles with satellite positioning devices and to ensure the monitoring of vehicle positioning data throughout the route. For the same purpose, vehicle drivers have the obligation to turn on the positioning devices before starting the transport on the national territory and to turn it off after the delivery or after leaving the territory of Romania. And for these obligations, the compliance deadline is still the beginning of July.

Article published in TaxNews.ro