The emergency ordinance modifying and completing Law 571/2004 on the approval of another ordinance meant to modify the Fiscal Code has, as yet, not been published in the Official Gazette. Finance Ministry representatives say the document does exist, however.
The fuss generated by the "phantom" ordinance is linked to the uncertainty felt by fiscal consultants and their customers caused by a surprise article added in Parliament to the law modifying and completing the Fiscal Code that is to come into effect as of January 1, 2005. The article bans "the ceding or estrangement of any kind of stock, excepting stock traded on the capital market or taxpayers' stakes in limited liability companies or fixed assets, without notification of the tax authorities with a view to their conducting a financial-fiscal inspection at least 60 days before the cession or estrangement operation is to be performed". In an identical formulation, another article stipulates a criminal sentence (6 months to 2 years prison sentence) if the ban is not observed.
It is clearly not easy to persuade the market that the text in question has been eliminated given that the ordinance modifying the law passed by Parliament has not yet been published. As a result, there are various rumours in circulation that say that the stipulation has in fact been retained and will be given a more restrictive interpretation through subsequent norms.
"It is hard to tell what is more deplorable in terms of this regulation: the defective elaboration of this legal norm, its unreasonableness, or the practical and undoubtedly unfortunate consequences it could have generated," said Alexandru Reff, tax and legal manager with Deloitte&Touche.
razvan.voican@zf.ro
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