The latest amnesty for gift vouchers issued to third parties has recently been published in the Official Gazette. The problem arose in 2019 when ANAF decided to interpret the legislation in a different way because it was unclear. Then even the Ministry of Finance drew attention to the fact that ANAF had misinterpreted.

Encouraged by ex-treasury head Mirela Kelugarianu, who boasted about the sanctions, the inspectors continued their work. The amnesty plus the fact that ANAF has to pay back the money means that the inspectors lost time, that is, lost money, when they could have checked the places where the evasion actually took place.

Simply put, instead of checking where necessary, the tax office looked at the ambiguities in the legislation to make “big discoveries”.

Last year, we had another amnesty – transporters’ per diems. Likewise, ANAF decided to give its own interpretations, even though all tax consultants accused the tax authorities of being wrong.

*In 2020, the control of daily (retraining) drivers was carried out, and the tax office inspected motor carriers for the past 5 years. This is in conditions where some of them were in control until then, but no one told them that something was wrong on that side. Note that all carriers applied the law equally, so this was not a problem for just a few.

In 2021, the Chamber of Fiscal Advisers said the authorities involved were opaque and confusing. Hotnews.ro constantly reported on the problem, including when the carriers took to the streets.

The head of ANAF is outraged by tax amnesties, but acknowledges the problem of confusing legislation

The head of ANAN, Lucian Heyusch, said he was “very angry when they give tax amnesty”.

“The problem is that we shouldn’t get there. We wouldn’t be in these situations if the legislation was very clear, something that would also help us as the Fisc. It would also be beneficial to taxpayers,” he said.

He wants a decision to be made at the political level to rewrite the Fiscal Code or rethink it and many of the mechanisms that “turned out to create problems for us when we go to audits and taxpayers.

He noted that legislation that is interpreted in good faith by taxpayers in a certain way, “and we come, after a while, and maybe interpret in good faith, but differently.”

“Then we get all sorts of situations like this, which are often resolved either in court or through legislative change, and which may eventually be properly clarified and put to rest. There were such situations with carriers or gift vouchers,” recalled Lucian Heiush during the PwC debate in Romania.

He also stated that many times these facilities were used excessively by some.

“They should have expected the risks that may arise by somehow stretching the maximum possible reserves,” he said.

It remains to be seen whether he will remain the head of ANAF after the change of government.

What will he do after he is no longer the head of ANAF?

“I am also a tax consultant and maybe after I am released from ANAF, I will go back there,” he noted.

The legislation is also confusing at the moment in certain areas, for example regarding the reduced VAT on photovoltaic panels (something HotNews.ro has been asking ANAF about for some time (since January), but I still haven’t received an answer). Traders interpret the law differently, and the IRS is likely to take advantage of this problem in the future. This is just an example. Small “bombs” are still in the Fiscal Code, but tax consultants do not want to take them into view, so as not to give ideas to the Treasury.