The European Commission recently submitted to the European Council a proposal for a Council Implementing Decision through which Romania would be granted the right to introduce a special measure derogating from Articles 218 and 232 of the VAT Directive.
Subject to the adoption of the proposal by the European Council, Romania would be allowed to introduce mandatory electronic invoicing for transactions between taxable persons (i.e. Business-to-Business – B2B transactions).
It is proposed that the derogation will apply from 01.01.2024, until 31.12.2026 or until the date on which the Member States are to apply the national provisions implemented as a result of adopting the ViDA reforms (” VAT in the digital age”) – whichever comes first.
Context: it should be noted that, as of 1 July 2022, all economic operators who carry out transactions with public institutions (i.e. Business-to-Government – B2G transactions) or who sell high-tax risk products are obliged to use the national RO e-Factura system when issuing and sending electronic invoices.
It should also be noted that Articles 218 and 232 of the VAT Directive, from which Romania has requested a derogation, stipulate that (i) Member States are obliged to accept all documents and messages, both in paper and electronic form, as invoices, and that (ii) the use of electronic invoices needs to be accepted by the recipient. Romania would like that only documents in electronic form to be considered invoices by the tax authorities and that the issuer no longer be required to obtain the consent of the recipient when sending an electronic invoice.
Source: Proposal for a Council Implementing Decision authorising Romania to introduce a special measure derogating from Articles 218 and 232 of Directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of VAT, as published on 23 June 2023.
