TOP 5 pieces of advice upon fiscal controls

"Any fiscal control of the company is a stress for the institution’s management, and, particularly, for its accountants. With a view to reduce this tension, we come up with several pieces of advice to follow in order to overcome this stage successfully", Mariana Godea, deputy director of Priminfo-Grup, declares.

1. The tax official should present the Decision for initiating the fiscal control and ensure the compliance with certain legal norms

As a rule, the control should be preceded by a summons received at least three working days before the launching of control, unless there is an unexpected check. Fiscal controls on the spot for certain categories of taxes, as well as for a certain fiscal period, can be performed not more than once per year in accordance with the legislation in force. Exception will be the cases: when a repeated fiscal control is required in the context of tax-payer’s reorganization or liquidation, is related to the auditing of tax body’s activity by a hierarchically-superior body, or is related to the activity of fiscal posts, or given the detection of fiscal infringement signs, as a result of fiscal control; when the control is done through comparison, when it is performed at the request of law-enforcement bodies and/or other institutions set by the law, or when there appeared a need as a result of having examined the cases on tax legislation infringement, or after having examined the appeal.

The period of a control should not exceed two calendar months. Only in exceptional cases can it be prolonged with three additional months. Thus, a control can not last more than five calendar months altogether.

2. The control can be performed outside the premises of the economic agent

Tax officials may perform the control of the company outside its premises provided that the economic agent does not have an office, it is located at a home address or the conditions are inappropriate for performing the control. In such a situation, a protocol shall be filled in, confirming the fact that the documents have been collected by the tax officials. All this shall be done in order to avoid misunderstandings as regards the presence or loss of certain company’s documents.

3. Find out the objections of the tax official during the control and not at the end

It would be nice to have periodical discussions with the tax official in order to understand certain findings and the manner of their interpretation by the tax official basing on the legislation in force. This is necessary in order to gain enough time for getting informed (by studying the legislation, requesting the opinion of Main State Tax Inspectorate on this subject in written form) and reacting accordingly to possible erroneous or univocal interpretation on behalf of the tax official. The written answers received from Main State Tax Inspectorate to Your requests would reduce the tension in the process of interpreting the tax legislative framework by You, on the one hand, and by the tax official, on the other hand.

4. Even if You disagree, it is more advisable to sign the control document with the mentioning ”I do not agree with...”, than refuse its signing

Provided that You disagree with the findings from the control process, the refusal to sign the control document does not exempt the economic agent from the responsibility towards the Tax Service structures. Thus, it is recommended that an economic agent which disagrees with the findings from the control document should still sign it, indicating it does not agree with the concerned findings. This step should be followed by the development of a well-reasoned disagreement, including references to tax legislation and the attachment of relevant documents. The disagreement must be submitted to the tax body not later than 15 calendar days since the moment of signing the control document. The refusal to sign the control document does not prolong the respective term.

5. Apply to consultancy companies

Nevertheless, provided that the company is subject to a control on behalf of tax bodies, you should better apply to consultancy companies in the respective sector. Their employees, having a good knowledge of the legislation and fiscal management, may discuss with the tax officials „in the same language” - professional. As a result, the management and accounting department would avoid the additional stress, loss of time and money and, the most important, would exclude the appearance of unclear situations.

Priminfo-Grup – the support You need!