December 15 deadline for companies to request rescheduling of debts accumulated in emergency state, e-billing pilot-programme to start

Companies will have until 15 December to apply for the rescheduling of debts accumulated in the period from the beginning of the state of emergency (16 March, ed. n.) until 25 October, Public Finance Minister Florin Citu said on Thursday, according to AGERPRES.

"The idea is simple: companies have a deadline of 15 December to make this rescheduling request for next year. In addition to what we have presented so far in the public space, we have improved a little the conditions, there will be no forced recovery of debts until 25 December and today we will also introduce in the OUG [Emergency Ordinance of the Government, ed. n.] yet another facility, the discussions with the companies at the Social Economic Council, we have also had these discussions and, compared to what we have proposed, for the period 26 October to 25 December there will be no calculation of interest or penalties for these fiscal obligations due since entering the state of emergency [16 March, ed. n.] and 25 December. So if there are companies that have filed returns [tax, ed. n.] and cannot pay and they want to be in the rescheduling until they are approved for the rescheduling, there is a period of time," Citu said.

He mentioned that he added to the text of the draft OUG an "extension of the deadline for VAT refund, with subsequent control, until 25 January".
"My opinion is, and that's what we're working on now, to make this system permanent, we already have in the history of ANAF [the National Authority for Fiscal Administration, ed. n.] a lot of companies that have been controlled over time and have paid every time, there have been checks and they have received VAT, so there is no problem. And then we can make a system that for these companies that have a certain rating there is this system of reimbursement, of subsequent control, the VAT refund with permanent subsequent control, that's what we are working on for after 25 January 2021. And some other tax measures," Citu said.

Florin Citu also announced on Thursday that a pilot program for e-billing will begin in the coming period, noting that the process of digitization of invoices continues.
"Digitization goes on. (...) We have, it will start in the next period a pilot program for e-billing. It is that measure that will bring to the budget, not only from our estimates, but from those of the international institutions and what we have seen in other countries, especially in Italy, at least two percentage points of revenue, which is almost 20 billion lei at the moment," Citu concluded.