New legislative amendment criminalizes non-payment of state taxes within 60 days as from the due date
The Law on preventing and combating tax evasion will be amended following the entry into force of a new Emergency Government Ordinance on 1 March 2022.
The amendment establishes and criminalizes a new tax offence.
An offence is committed in the event of withholding and non-payment – or, as the case may be, collecting and non-payment – of taxes and contributions expressly provided for in the Annex to the Act, within 60 days as from the due date.
Taxes and contributions for which non-payment may lead to committing the offence include:
- tax on dividends paid by a Romanian legal person to a Romanian legal person;
- tax on income from intellectual property rights;
- tax on income from wages and salaries;
- tax on rental income;
- tax on interest income;
- tax on taxable income from liquidation of a legal person or from reduction of share capital;
- tax on dividend income;
- social security and health contributions;
- withholding tax on income earned in Romania by non-residents;
- tax on income from transfer of real estate;
- contributions to the environmental fund.
The penalty is imprisonment from 1 to 5 years or a fine.
Some provisions supplementing the tax offence are worth mentioning.
That is, several circumstances lead either to a lighter criminal penalty being imposed on the offender or to impediments to initiation and conduct of criminal proceedings against the offender.
The Act stipulates that full coverage of damage in the course of criminal proceedings or trial has the effect of:
- optional imposition of a fine by the court where the damage does not exceed 100 000 EUR;
- mandatory imposition of a fine by the court where the damage is up to 50 000 EUR.
In addition, coverage of the damage, plus 20% of the basis of calculation, plus interest and penalties during criminal proceedings or trial has the effect of triggering the legal provisions on termination of criminal proceedings where a ground for non-punishment arises.
The above provisions do not apply to an offender that has benefited from them in the last 5 years.
Source:
– Emergency Government Ordinance No. 130/ 2021;
– Law No. 241/ 2005 on preventing and combating tax evasion.