Important tax measures and clarifications brought in April 2025

In this month’s newsletter, we are talking about the changes to the construction tax (“pole tax”), about the procedure for applying the 3% from 2024 corporate income tax discount for good paying taxpayers and about some important clarification brought regarding tax compliance obligations, with the help of the Romanian Chamber of Tax Advisors.

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1. Construction tax

GEO 21/2025 for amending and supplementing Title X of Law no. 227/2015 on the Fiscal Code was recently published in the Official Gazette no 300 of April 4, 2025 and is already in force. This comes with some changes regarding the construction tax that are applicable starting with the fiscal year 2025 (respectively with the modified fiscal year starting in 2025), which we summarize below:

a. Tax base and tax rate

• Application of the 0.5% rate on the net value of constructions (gross book value minus cumulative depreciation), for which no tax on building is due, regardless of the value that was the computation basis for determining the tax on buildings, existing in the taxpayers’ patrimony on December 31 of the previous year/on the last day of the amended fiscal year prior to the one for which the construction tax is due
• Application of a rate of 0.25% on the value of the constructions in the administration/concession/ free of charge use contracts /rental, in the case of those of the public/private domain of the state or of the administrative-territorial units, existing on December 31 of the previous year/on the last day of the amended fiscal year prior to the one for which the construction tax is due, and for which no building tax is due.
• Investments made by taxpayers in constructions that are used on the basis of management/concession/ free of charge use contracts/ lease/ management location /joint venture and the like are not considered constructions, if, by the end of the respective year, these investments do not materialize in constructions defined according to art. 497.
• No construction tax is due for the constructions that are exempt from tax on buildings.
• No construction taxes are due for buildings located outside Romania’s borders, nor for constructions located in the territorial sea of Romania.

b. Deadline for declaration, payment & 10% discount for the full advance payment

• Taxpayers who fall under art. 16 para. (5) of the Tax Code (i.e. fiscal year different than calendar year), shall also consider the following:

– the calculation and declaration of the construction tax shall be carried out until the 25th of the fifth month of the amended fiscal year for which the tax is due;

– the payment of the construction tax is made in two equal installments until the last day of the sixth month of the amended fiscal year, respectively until the last day of the tenth month of the modified fiscal year, for which the tax is due.

• For taxpayers for whom the fiscal year is equal to the calendar year, the declaration deadline is May 25 of the year for which the tax is due, and the payment is due in 2 equal installments, until June 30 and October 31 of the same year, respectively.
• By exception, newly established taxpayers have the obligation to declare and pay the tax by January 25 of the year following the year in which they were established, respectively by the 25th of the first month of the amended fiscal year following the one in which they were established.
• Taxpayers who declare and pay in advance the annual tax on construction until May 25 inclusive of the year for which the tax is due, respectively until the 25th inclusive of the fifth month of the modified fiscal year for which the tax is due benefit from a discount of 10% of the amount of the tax.

c. Rules on taxpayers incorporated / liquidated during the year

• Taxpayers who cease to exist during a tax year recalculate the construction tax in such a way that they pay it only for the period of the year in which they existed.
• Taxpayers who start to exist during the tax year compute the “pole tax” only for the period from the establishment until the end of the year (previously, they owed the tax starting with the year following the establishment).

2. The 3% discount from the annual profit tax and/or from the microenterprise income tax for the fiscal year 2024/modified fiscal year starting in 2024, for taxpayers who are good payers

According to GEO 107/2024, which was given mainly for a general tax amnesty, corporate income tax payers and micro tax payers benefit from a bonus of 3% of the annual corporate income tax of 2024, if the following conditions are met:

• The taxpayer has submitted all the declarations according to the tax vector
• The annual corporate income tax / microenterprise income tax, related to the year 2024 / amended fiscal year starting in 2024, as the case may be, are fully extinguished and within the deadlines provided by the law
• There is no other tax/budgetary obligation outstanding at the legal deadline for submitting the declarations declaring the annual corporate income tax for the year 2024/modified fiscal year starting in 2024, respectively by the deadline for declaring the microenterprise income tax for the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2024.

Therefore, companies must wait until after June 25, 2025 (the deadline for declaring the annual corporate income tax / microenterprise income tax in the fourth quarter of 2024) to see whether or not they receive the bonus. The amounts established as a bonus can be used by taxpayers to offset future tax obligations.

In this regard, the application procedure was approved by Ministry of Finance Order 540/2025, published in the Official Gazette no 331 of April 14, 2025. The procedure establishes that the bonus is granted ex officio, without a request to be submitted by the taxpayer. Thus, after June 25, 2025 / the deadline for submitting the annual corporate income tax return for taxpayers with a modified fiscal year, good-paying taxpayers will receive a decision informing them about the granting of the bonus, as the fulfillment of the conditions for granting the bonus is ascertained ex officio by the tax authority, which issues a decision to that effect (which will be communicated in accordance with the rules applicable to any administrative-fiscal act).

It is not expressly specified what the date on which the budgetary receivables and future tax obligations are considered to exist at once is, for the operation of the compensation. It remains to be seen whether this is the date of the decision issued by the tax authority on granting the bonus or the date on which the deadline for submitting the D101 statement for 2024 / D100 for microenterprise income tax expires in the fourth quarter of 2024, so that taxpayers can plan what is the future fiscal period to which the compensation of tax obligations with the bonus obtained can be applied.

3. Important tax clarifications obtained in April 2025 with the help of Romanian Chamber of Tax Advisors (“CCF”)

Clarification of the type of tax due in 2024 by oil & gas companies: IMCA or ICAS

In a response elaborated to the CCF’s request, the Ministry of Finance confirms that, for 2024, the economic agents that also obtain income from carrying out activities according to NACE codes: 0610 – “Oil extraction”; 0620 – “Natural gas extraction”; 1920 – “Manufacture of products obtained by oil refining”; 3522 – “Distribution of gaseous fuels through pipelines”; 3523 – “Sale of gaseous fuels, through pipelines”; 4671 – “Wholesale of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels and derived products”; 4730 – “Retail trade of motor fuels in specialized stores”; 4950 – “Transport by pipelines, regardless of their weight in the total activity, have the obligation to pay a tax in addition to the corporate income tax, respectively a specific tax on turnover (ICAS) calculated according to art. 18³ of the Fiscal Code. These companies do not apply the provisions of art. 18¹ on IMCA.

Request to the Romanian tax authority (“ANAF”) to clarify the non-applicability of the National Bank of Romania (“NBR”) reference rate to determine the market value of interest on intra-group loans

Following some recent transfer pricing audits carried out by ANAF, during which ANAF assessed the length value of interest on intra-group loans by reference to the NBR reference rate, CCF wrote a letter dated April 4, 2025, and requested ANAF to put in place measures to eliminate this practice. CCF considers that the NBR reference interest rate, established by Government Ordinance 13/2011 to be used in limited cases, cannot be considered a good reflection of the market value of the interest rates charged within intra-group loans. As a result, the use by the tax authorities of the NBR reference interest rate in the transfer pricing audits is not only devoid of legal basis, but also erroneous in substance, as it violates the express provisions of art. 11 para. (4) of the Fiscal Code.

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