Regulatory updates - Romania

As reported in previous updates, since July 2022, Romania has mandated the use of the national e-Factura infrastructure to issue electronic invoices to public entities (B2G) and also for companies that issue invoices for the supply of products of high fiscal risk to other businesses (B2B).

There have been some rumours in the market that B2B e-invoicing will become mandatory for all businesses in the country by 2024. As of now, there has been no official legislation in place in this regard. Therefore, it seems the 2024 timeline is unlikely to happen.

However, it is worth mentioning that last year Romania applied for a derogation from the EU commission to implement a countrywide mandate but hasn’t received it yet. This is probably because the current CTC model in Romania is not in line with the VIDA initiative.

Pagero is closely monitoring the developments in Romania and will update the stakeholders with any upcoming official announcements.

The Romanian government has issued a draft emergency ordinance, postponing fines for non-compliance with the RO e-transport mandates. The penalties will now be imposed as of 1 January 2023.

Furthermore, the validity timeframe of e-transport documents for intra-community transactions has been increased from 5 days to 10. All other transactions, however, will still hold validity only for 5 days.

To learn more about RO e-transport in Romania, click here.

As previously mentioned by Pagero, Romania has implemented the RO e-Transport system since 1 July 2022. Certain taxpayers were obliged to adhere to the nationwide monitoring system for the transport of goods with high fiscal risk by validating the dispatch advice with this system prior to shipment of the goods.

As the implementation deadline was approaching, many taxpayers faced penalties for not yet having their compliance solutions up and running. Romanian authorities published an Emergency Ordinance on 30 June 2022 to deal with this issue. Effectively pushing the introduction of the penalties to 1 October 2022.

Please note that this postponement of the penalties does not mean a general delay of the reporting obligation, and usage of the e-Transport platform is still mandatory.

On 17 May 2022, Law no. 139/2022 was passed, approving Government Ordinance 120/2021 which focuses on the administration, functioning, e-invoicing, and implementation of the RO e-factura system.

Government Ordinance 130/2021, which addresses electronic invoices in the private sector, will not be impacted by the new law. The timelines for both government ordinances are similar.

Timelines for the new requirements

Beginning 1 July 2022, taxpayers will have to adhere to the following:

• Taxpayers established in Romania will be required to issue e-invoices for the B2G transactions via the RO e-Factura national platform.
• Taxpayers trading in high-risk fiscal products in the B2B relationship will also have to exchange electronic invoices via the national platform.
• Taxpayers trading in high-risk fiscal products will be required to use the RO e-transport system to monitor the transport of these products. We describe this system below.

What is RO E-Transport System?

It is a national system for monitoring the transport of goods with high fiscal risk. The RO e-Transport system has been optional to use since 1 April 2022 but will become mandatory as of 1 July 2022.

The system requires suppliers to register the transportation of the goods in it a max of 3 calendar days before shipping. The following information needs to be provided:

• Name of the consignor, beneficiary, or consignee;
• Quantities and value of the transported goods;
• Places of loading and unloading;
• Details on the means of transport used and carrier;
• Date declared for the start of the transportation.

After the above information is processed in the RO e-transport system, a unique code (ITU Code) will be generated, and a physical copy of the code will have to be included with the goods before shipping.

The Romanian Chamber of Deputies announced a draft law on 20 April 2022, which is set to amend Government Ordinance 120/2021. This ordinance focuses on the administration, functioning, e-invoicing and implementation of the RO e-factura system.

The system has been available for voluntary use since November 2021. The proposed changes in the draft law will mandate B2G e-invoicing, beginning 1 July 2022.

As previously mentioned, the Government Ordinance 130/2021 required the issuance of electronic invoices via the RO e-factura system for B2B suppliers of high-risk fiscal products as of 1 July 2022. This draft law will now await a derogation decision from the European Commission. Once obtained, the tax authority (ANAF) will establish the categories of taxable persons and when they will need to use the RO-eFactura system for invoices issued in the private sector.

Based on the proposed amendments, it is expected that the implementation of e-invoicing for all types of transactions will take a short time. Namely, the Romanian Ministry of Finance states 2023 as a timeline in their announcement.

In Romania the use of the Ro e-factura system to issue e-invoices is nowadays voluntary. The main requirement to exchange e-invoices via RO e-factura is that both parties (supplier and buyer) are registered in the “RO e-factura registry”.

The Romanian Government published on 18 December 2021 the Emergency Ordinance no. 130/2021 with more information regarding the issuance of e-invoices. In particular, In article XXXVII of the ordinance states that B2B suppliers of high fiscal risk products will have to start issuing electronic invoices through the national platform RO e-factura.

• From 1 April until 30 June it will be voluntary for these taxpayers to issue e-invoices, even though the buyer is not registered in the RO e-Invoice registry
• From 1 July 2022, these taxpayers will be required to issue e-invoices through the RO system on a mandatory basis.

It is still to be determined what a high fiscal risk product is, as the name says, they are products with a high risk of tax fraud and evasion. The National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF) will be publishing soon the list of products in this category. However, it is worth mentioning that the list is periodically re-evaluated.

In October 2021, the Romanian Government released Ordinance no. 120/2021, regulating the RO e-invoice national invoicing system (RO e-factura).

New Order to regulate the technical aspects

Order no. 1366/2021 from 5 November 2021 approves the technical specifications and the basic elements of the electronic invoice format RO_CIUS on a countrywide level. These are the main aspects that are being regulated:

• The technical specifications of the basic elements of e-invoice - RO_CIUS;
• Set of rules for the semantic data of the electronic invoice;
• Additional rules on the format RO_CIUS.

Current status of e-invoicing

Today B2G electronic invoicing is optional for every taxpayer, and B2B is optional with the requirement that both parties (sender and recipient) are registered in the RO e-invoice system. Stay tuned with Pagero for the latest developments on electronic invoicing in Romania.

With the introduction of the pilot programme as part of the e-Factura project, e-invoicing in Romania is starting to take form.

How did the e-Factura project start?

The Romanian government launched the project in March 2020 after closely monitoring the Italian e-invoicing model and analysing the economic impact and efficiencies that electronic invoicing has had in Italy.

On 8 September 2020, Law no. 199/2020 on e-invoicing within public procurement was released. Through this law, Directive 2014/55/EU has been transposed in Romania.

Launch of the pilot programme

Furthermore, on 13 September 2021, the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance released the first draft on implementing e-invoicing via the national system called RO e-Factura. This system will be implemented during the pilot phase and used for B2G e-invoicing.

The pilot programme for testing B2G e-invoicing with RO e-Factura was launched on 15 September 2021. As of 1 October 2021, the national e-invoicing system will become operational.

This phase is planned to be the first step towards a country-wide e-invoicing mandate in Romania which will later be extended to B2B transactions. Further developments on this matter are expected.