According to the Tax Code, employees involved in the creation of computer programs are exempt from paying income tax on wages. A new order published in the Official Gazette (OMFP 433/2022) regulates the justification procedure for exemption from income tax on wages.

Fiscal consultant Adrian Benza provided a brief analysis of the order.

“Compared to the previous procedures, the current procedure is more simplified and expands the categories of persons who can take advantage of the tax relief, including both for graduates of an educational institution with a higher education, and for graduates of general educational institutions who have completed a bachelor’s degree exam and are students of accredited universities,” he says.

The procedure also applies to employees of state institutions who create computer programs, i.e. to budget IT staff, as HotNews.ro wrote the other day.

Analyzing the regulation from the perspective of a private employer, Benza says, the regulation precisely lists the CAEN codes accepted for computer programming activities, namely:

• CAEN 5821 “Publishing activities in the field of computer games”;

• CAEN 5829 “Editing activities of other software products”;

• CAEN 6201 “Activities to create custom software (customer-oriented software)”;

• CAEN 6202 “Consulting activities in the field of information technologies”;

• CAEN 6209 “Other types of services related to information technologies”.

Salary income tax exemptions can be granted if the following five cumulative conditions are met, he says:

1. Employees hold positions and perform activities provided for by this normative act;

2. The post is part of a specialized information section;

3. The employee has a higher education or a bachelor’s degree and is obtaining an accredited higher education;

4. The employer received income from the creation of computer programs in the previous financial year. Exceptions are newly established companies and state institutions;

5. The income received has a value of at least EUR 10,000 for each employee benefiting from the exemption from taxation of income from wages.

The functions and activities for which an exemption from income tax on wages may be granted are:

a) Database administrator;

b) analyst;

c) systems engineer in informatics;

d) software system engineer;

e) head of IT projects;

f) programmer;

g) designer of IT systems;

h) Computer systems programmer;

i) Programmer assistance;

j) assistance of an analyst;

l) Software product development engineer.

According to Bentsi, the procedure for registration of a personal file must be followed with special attention, as a large number of documents are required, such as internal orders, copies of diplomas, as well as the obligation to draw up salary certificates. separately from the rest of the employees.