The Ministry of Finance has published an order updating the rules for the use and completion of the payment order for the State Treasury. The news has an effect on how accountants and entrepreneurs manage tax payments and transactions with public institutions and more. The changes are already applicable and may have significant implications for current accounting processes, so it is important to be aware of them. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you navigate through this news.

The changes were made by MF Order no. 2.538/2023 and are already in force. They refer, among other things, to the “Beneficiary” column in the payment order for the State Treasury. According to the new rules, for Fiscal/Budgetary Obligations, instead of specifying “state budget” or “social insurance and special funds budget”, the term “general consolidated budget” is now entered.

This rule applies to payments to the component budgets of the general consolidated budget, including voluntary payments, compensations, enforced executions and other legal ways.
Instead, for obligations to public institutions, in the case of payments that do not fall into the category above, in the Beneficiary column, enter the name of the beneficiary public institution.

Even in the case of excise duty payments, we have news, in the sense that in the case of excise duties paid by the buyer on behalf of the supplier, the name of the supplier registered as excise payer is mentioned.

The MF order also makes some changes to the way to fill in the “Fiscal Identification Code” column. Thus, for Specific Fiscal Obligations, the “tax identification code of the taxpayer” is used. More precisely, for the tax on the salary income due from secondary establishments, the tax identification code of the secondary establishment is used, and for Excise, the tax identification code of the supplier registered as an excise tax payer is mentioned.
Regarding payments made from accounts opened at the State Treasury, the fiscal identification code of the beneficiary, legal person, or the personal numerical code is used, depending on the situation.

More precisely, for payments made from accounts opened at the State Treasury for other destinations (for example: paying into the accounts of economic operators opened at the State Treasury the sums representing the value of purchased goods, services rendered or works performed for public institutions; transferring the balances of the operators’ availability accounts economic in bank accounts; transfer of amounts related to salary rights to card accounts opened at banks in the name of employees of public institutions; payments regarding the distribution of amounts received through the capitalization of movable and immovable assets from the foreclosure process; transfers related to state securities intended for the population within the Program Treasury, etc.) is entered:

• the tax identification code of the beneficiary of the amount, a legal person, in the situation where the beneficiary of the amount is registered for tax purposes in Romania;
• personal numerical code, in the case of payments to accounts opened at the State Treasury;
• the fiscal identification code of the head office of the credit institution in Romania where the beneficiary of the amount has opened his account or the fiscal identification code assigned to the State Treasury (8609468), in the situation where the beneficiary of the amount is not fiscally registered in Romania;
• the personal numerical code or the fiscal identification code of the central credit institution in Romania where the beneficiary of the amount has opened his account according to the decision of the payer, in case the payment is made from accounts opened at the State Treasury units to natural persons in bank accounts.

The new normative act issued by the Ministry of Finance also updates the filling rules for the column “Beneficiary IBAN Code”, establishing that the IBAN code corresponding to either the income/budget expenditure account or the account of the beneficiary of the amount, opened at the credit institution, must be entered.

A last set of changes were made to the column “Representing”, where the Ministry established that the economic nature of the payment made is specified in it, and for the amounts representing budget revenues, the name of the budget obligation paid, as well as any other information on which the payer considers relevant. In addition, in the case of the other categories of amounts to be paid, the economic nature of the payment is entered, and in the case of payments to beneficiaries who are not tax registered in Romania, other relevant information can also be entered (for example, their tax identification code from the country in which they are tax registered).

These changes are intended to simplify the payment process and clarify the information required for the State Treasury. Accountants and entrepreneurs should familiarize themselves with these changes to ensure compliance and efficiency in managing fiscal and budgetary obligations.

Article published in Business-Mark.ro