Methodological Norms for tax specific to certain activities

Order no. 264/464/2017 regarding approval of the Methodological Norms for the application of Law no. 170/2016 on the tax specific to certain activities was published in the Official Gazette no. 266/14.04.2017.

Romanian corporate taxpayers who have registered as main or secondary activity one of the activities corresponding to the CAEN Codes provided by Law 170/20106, but do not actually carry out activity in the respective fields are not required to pay the specific tax.

Microenterprises applying Title III ” Microenterprises Tax” of the Fiscal Code, on 1 January 2017, do not apply the specific tax.

The fulfillment of the conditions is verified at the date when the law enters into force, at the beginning of each fiscal year, based on the facts existing on 31 December of the previous year. The communication to the territorial tax body shall be made by 31 March 2017 inclusive of the following year.

The Order defines the hotel complex as consisting of buildings and land that include in the same edifice or buildings linked physically or functionally structure of tourists with various functions.

The Order defines the hotel complex as consisting of buildings and land that include in the same edifice or edifices linked physically or functionally structure of tourists with various functions.

The Order contains a number of examples for the application of the specific tax, including:

• taxpayers who earn income from the operation of several units, determine the specific annual tax by adding together the specific tax for each unit, calculated according to the formula set out in the Annex to the CAEN Code.
• taxpayers carrying out several activities with the NACE codes provided by Law 170/2016, except for those who carry out activities through a complex of hotels, determine the specific tax by adding together the tax for each activity carried out.
• taxpayers who carry out activities through a complex of hotels determine the specific tax according to the formula: Annual specific tax / unit = k * no. of places where k is the standard specific tax – lei / accommodation / year.
• when, in the complex of hotels, the sum of the places of the public catering establishments exceeds the number of places of accommodation, for the exces difference of the number of places is paid the specific tax according to Annex no. 1 or 2 to Law 170/2016.

Corporate taxpayers who have registered a tax loss and that apply the specific tax system will recover the tax loss when returning to the corporate tax system within the limit of 7 consecutive years of the loss recording.

Taxpayers who earn income from other activities other than those corresponding to the CAEN codes provided by Law no. 170 are obliged to determine and pay at the same time:

– the specific income tax for the activities corresponding to the CAEN codes;

– profit tax, according to the Fiscal Code.

For these other activities, taxpayers have to organize and manage accounting records according to the accounting regulations for determining the income and expenses corresponding to the activities concerned.

In order to determine the common expenses to be taken into account when determining the fiscal result, a reasonable allocation method is used, according to the applicable accounting regulations, or by the proportional distribution with the share of the revenues obtained from the activities concerned in the total revenues realized by the taxpayer.