The Ministry of Finance will start an information campaign on the mandatory electronic invoice from Saturday, government spokesman Mihai Konstantin said on Friday. As a reminder, e-invoicing will become mandatory from Monday 1 January 2024, so if you are a company, PFA or NGO, you will need to declare invoices through a Virtual Private Space (SPV) or other software that offers different companies.

• “I want to remind you about the implementation of the decision made by the executive power some time ago – the establishment of a mandatory electronic account from January 1, 2024.
• This is a very important measure in the general context of combating evasion, increasing revenues to the budget and digitizing the services that the state offers to legal entities and individuals in Romania,” said Mihai Constantin at the end of the government meeting on Friday.

He said the process was in the “final stages of verification” from a cyber security point of view and a “very sustained campaign” would begin on Saturday:

“The Ministry of Finance, which implements this electronic invoice through ANAF, will launch an extremely sustained information campaign from tomorrow (Saturday – not) through a press conference that will be held at the Ministry of Finance, starting at 11.00, under the leadership of the Minister of Finance, Marcel Bolosh, but who will be accompanied by a guard of experts who will explain to the general public what this new electronic invoicing system entails.”

RO E-Invoice system, mandatory from January 1

We remind you that the national RO e-Invoice system becomes mandatory from January 1, 2024.

Therefore, anyone who owns a company, NGO or PFA and maintains a B2B relationship has an obligation to report invoices through the e-Invoice system through a virtual private space. The obligation was introduced on the basis of Law 296/2023 and is planned in stages.

The national electronic invoicing system RO e-Factura is available in a Virtual Private Space (SPV), which is accessed exclusively with a qualified digital certificate for electronic signature.

Digital certificate

To obtain a qualified digital signature certificate, you must contact the company that offers it and indicate that you wish to use it in your dealings with ANAF. Companies in this field offer practical guides for registering with the tax service.

If you work with an independent accountant or a company in the industry that agrees to invoicing through the e-Invoice system, they will likely increase the rate for the additional work.

You have to trust the accountant. If you’re late with your upload, you may be fined. Do not forget that this is a strictly regulated term (see below).

In the case of consecutive invoices, each document is declared in the SPV. Also, if there is only one invoice and 3 product shipments (for example), declare only one.

What penalty will you receive if you do not declare an invoice to ANAF and what is your term / E and the period during which sanctions do not apply

The deadline for sending invoices to the SPV (e-Invoice) is 5 working days from the date of invoicing, but no later than 5 working days from the deadline for invoicing.

If you do not declare, it is considered a violation and is punishable by a fine of 5,000 lei to 10,000 lei for legal entities classified as high tax payers.

Small and medium-sized enterprises will receive a fine from 2,500 to 5,000 lei. Other taxpayers, i.e. lower than average, will receive a fine of 1,000 to 2,500 lei.

IMPORTANTLY:In the period from January 1 to March 31, 2024, sanctions are not applied.

What is not declared in the electronic invoice

• Supplies of goods that are sent or transported outside the European Union by the supplier or another person at his expense

• Supplies of goods sent or transported outside the European Union by a buyer who is not registered in Romania or by another person on his behalf, except for goods transported by the buyer himself and used for equipment or fuel for boats and recreational aircraft or any other transport for private use. The delivery of goods carried in the personal luggage of travelers who are not registered in the European Union is also exempted if the following conditions are met:

– the traveler is not registered in the European Union, respectively, the address or permanent residence is not within the European Union. Permanent address or place of residence – the place specified in the passport, identity card or other document recognized by the internal affairs body as an identity document;

– the goods are transported outside the European Union before the end of the third month following the month in which the delivery took place;

– the total value of the delivery, plus VAT, exceeds the equivalent in lei of 175 euros, which is established annually by applying the exchange rate obtained on the first working day of October and effective from January 1 of the following year;

– confirmation of export will be made through an invoice or another document that replaces it, containing the conclusion of customs after leaving the European Union.

• Supply of goods within the Community to a taxable person or a non-taxable legal person acting as such in a Member State other than the one in which the dispatch or transport of the goods begins, which communicates to the supplier a valid VAT registration code assigned by the tax authorities of another State – member, with the exception of:

1. deliveries within the community made by a small enterprise, except for deliveries of new vehicles within the community;

2. intra-Community supplies that were subject to a special regime for second-hand goods, works of art, collectibles and antiques, in accordance with the provisions

What will happen from July 1, 2024

From July 1, 2024, the e-Invoice system is moving to a new stage. It will be not only reporting, but also issuing and receiving bills.

Basically all invoices will be issued through this system, and if there are none and the supplier does not upload them, he will receive a VAT penalty.

But there is a problem with this view: the fine becomes unlimited.

The Chamber of Fiscal Advisers even sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance pointing out several issues, such as some invoices being duplicated, not knowing what to do if you have a voided VAT code, etc.

Regarding the fine in the amount of VAT, the fiscal consultants drew attention to the fact that the act should be punished, regardless of the amount shown on the account, by a fine, the amount of which is determined according to the circumstances and circumstances of its commission, according to the degree of public danger of the fact, as also provided by the general principle that is regulated in violation cases (Article 5 OG 2/2001).

“Or, in this case, the penalty applied to the beneficiary is proportional to the amount invoiced by the supplier, so the action is not sanctioned, but rather regulated by another mechanism that may give rise to the false belief that VAT is not deductible,” says the Chamber of Fiscal Advisers .

In addition, CCF understands from the text of the law that the penalty will apply to any taxpayer, regardless of whether it is a small business or a person registered as a VAT payer, which of course can cause significant damage to small businesses for which compliance tax law is more difficult if we take into account access to digitization, including the Internet in some regions of the country, as well as their reduced ability to allocate material and human resources, which in this case tax law compliance requires. (Photo: Dreamstime.com)