Preliminary assessment of the third payment request of Romania (2024)

           project REFORM/SC2022/039 “Increasing the efficiency of the fiscal control activity in
           Romania”
 iv.       Copy of the report “Recommendations and proposals for the revision and modification of
           the legislative, methodological and procedural framework of the control activity in
           Romania”, representing Deliverable 3 of the project REFORM/SC2022/039 “Increasing the
           efficiency of the fiscal control activity in Romania”;
  v.       Annex to the summary document including a table, showing how recommendations from
           Deliverable 3 of the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) were translated into the updated
           legal framework for its finalisation.

Analysis:

Entry into force of the amended legal framework in the field of activity of tax inspection bodies Government Emergency Ordinance No. 188/2022, amending Law No. 207/2015 on the Code of Fiscal Procedure and amending Government Emergency Order No. 74/2013 on certain measures to improve and reorganise the work of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration and amending certain legislative acts (hereinafter referred to as “the Government Emergency Ordinance”) was published in the Official Journal No. 1272 of 29 December 2022. The relevant provisions regulating the powers of the tax authorities tax inspection bodies, anti-fraud control bodies, and bodies responsible for verifying the personal tax situation for the satisfactory fulfilment of this milestone, as outlined in the analysis, entered into force on the same day, as stated in Article III of the Government Emergency Ordinance.

The new law shall establish/revise the powers of the tax authorities tax inspection bodies, anti- fraud control bodies, and bodies responsible for verifying the personal tax situation), (…) The Government Emergency Ordinance includes provisions revising the powers of tax authorities. Article I(2) introduces the obligation of the tax authority, at the written request of the taxpayer subject to a tax inspection, to make available the administrative file of the tax inspection. Article I(5) establishes the power for tax authorities to carry out unannounced checks or anti-fraud checks.

The Government Emergency Ordinance revises the powers of the tax authorities tax inspection bodies by introducing, among others, the following provisions:

• • Article I(18) introduces the mandatory notification of compliance issued by the central tax

authority in the case of tax inspection;

• • Article I(19) introduces the possibility of submitting or correcting the tax return related to

the tax periods and receivables that will be subject to the tax inspection, until the date of the start of the tax inspection;

• • Article I(16) establishes that in the case of tax receivables administered by the local tax

authority, the selection of taxpayers to be subject to tax inspection is carried out by the competent tax inspection body, depending on the level of risk determined on the basis of the risk analysis. In the case of tax receivables administered by the central tax body, the selection of taxpayers is carried out at the level of the central apparatus of ANAF.

The Government Emergency Ordinance revises the powers of the anti-fraud control bodies by introducing, among others, the following provisions:

• • Article I(28) establishes the competencies, objectives and rules for carrying out anti-fraud

activities. It establishes that anti-fraud controls are carried out by the civil servants of the General Directorate for Tax Anti-Fraud based on a risk analysis. It introduces that the anti- fraud control bodies are to carry out operative control activities without informing the taxpayer in advance about the control, and that the tax anti-fraud control bodies may carry