Changes regarding the minimum gross basic salary
According to the decision no. 935/2019 of December 13, 2019 for establishing the minimum gross basic salary per country guaranteed in the payment, published in the Official Gazette no. 1010 of December 16, 2019, starting with January 1, 2020, the minimum gross basic wage in the country guaranteed in payment, provided in art. 164 para. (1) of Law no. 53/2003 – The Labor Code, republished, with the subsequent modifications and completions, is established in money, without including bonuses and other additions, at the amount of 2,230 lei per month, for a normal work program on average of 167,333 hours per month, representing 13,327 lei / hour.
In applying the provisions of art. 164 para. (1 ^ 2) of Law no. 53/2003, republished, with the subsequent amendments and completions, starting with January 1, 2020, all rights and obligations established according to the law are determined by reference to the level of 2,230 lei of the minimum gross basic salary per country guaranteed in payment.
New rules for crowdfunding platforms
The new rules as agreed by the Presidency and the Parliament on December 19, will cover crowdfunding campaigns of up to EUR 5 million over a 12 month period. Larger operations will be regulated by MiFID and the prospectus regulation. Reward- and donation-based crowdfunding fall outside the scope of the proposal.
The agreed rules provide a high level of investor protection, whilst taking into account compliance cost for providers. The text sets outs common prudential, information and transparency requirements. It also includes specific requirements for non-sophisticated investors. At the same time, the rules for EU crowdfunding businesses will be tailored depending on whether they provide their funding in the form of a loan or an investment (through shares and bonds issued by the company that raises funds).
Applying the VAT exemption for intra-Community supplies of goods
The Ministry of Public Finance has published, on December 19, some clarification regarding the justification of intra-Community transport in order to apply the VAT exemption for intra-Community supplies of goods, starting with January 1, 2020. The legislation in the field of VAT provides for a number of conditions for the application of the VAT exemption in the case of intra-Community supplies of goods and, one of them is that the goods must be shipped or transported from one Member State to another.
In order to provide concrete solutions and to harmonize the conditions under which VAT exemptions can be applied at EU level, it was considered appropriate to specify certain circumstances in which a European regulation, directly applicable to all Member States, should consider that goods are transported from one Member State to another.
In this respect, the Implementing Regulation (EU) no. 2018/1912 of the Council amending the Implementing Regulation (EU) no. 282/2011 regarding certain exemptions for intra-Community operations has been adopted and will enter into force on 1 January 2020.
The digitalisation of freight transport information
The EU is a taking a major step forward in the digitalisation of transport by making it easier for businesses to provide information to authorities in digital form. The new rules will require all relevant public authorities to accept information made available electronically on certified platforms whenever companies choose to use such a format to provide information as proof of compliance with legislative requirements. However, companies will still be able to present the information in paper format if they prefer.
Within 30 months from the entry into force of the new rules, the Commission will adopt technical specifications, seeking to ensure interoperability between the various IT systems used for the exchange of freight transport information. The Commission will also set out common procedures and detailed rules for accessing and processing such information, to ensure that the rules are applied consistently by the authorities concerned. All this is done through secondary legislation.
At present, most freight transport companies and other transport business stakeholders use paper documents. The main barrier to the wider use of digital transport documents is the variable (but overall rather low) degree of acceptance of digital documents by the various authorities. A large number of different, non-interoperable IT systems are used for information exchange.