The interpretations of the guidelines for enforcing the income tax legislation, now endorsed but yet unpublished in the Official Gazette, do apply to the 2002 fiscal year, a Finance Ministry official told Ziarul Financiar.
Although this is in breach of the law principles, the fears about a retroactive enforcement of the guidelines are now confirmed. The taxpayers, either individuals or companies have until May 15 to study the guidelines and see what types of income have to be included in the tax return for 2002 and how.
"The changes are not as significant as to say the norms are enforced retroactively. As for insurance, a decision of the minister was issued last summer, showing how to deal with it," the same source says.
"Since the lawmaker specified enforcement guidelines for the ordinance would follow, this means it was fully aware that the normative act required additional clarifications. Because these clarifications were provided a year later, the economic operators can only be expected to encounter problems in applying them for 2002," Mihaela Mitroi, tax director with PricewaterhouseCoopers Romania says.
As far as the Finance Ministry is concerned, the enforcement guidelines in question were issued for Ordinance 7/2001 on income tax, in force since January 1, 2002, so that they are effective as of the same date. However, Law 493/2002, which endorses and completes Ordinance 7/2001, came into force on January 1, 2003. The guidelines do not come with an exact specification as to when to start enforcing them. The normative act reads "the enforcement guidelines concerning the articles that under Law 493/2002 endorsing Ordinance 7/2001 on income tax come into force on January 1, 2003 shall be enforced accordingly." And this is the solution to the problem, the Finance Ministry feels.
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