The provision included in the draft law for the Tax Procedure Code changes, or rather “digitizes,” the process of audits, specifically the way taxpayers are informed. Every document from the tax authority will be transmitted to the Taxis account and the obligated party will be notified via email or SMS to take action accordingly.
All documents from the tax authority, whether it’s for audit notification or tax assessment, will only be delivered digitally through Taxis or via email, and they will be considered active after 10 days. This means that notification documents that were previously physically delivered or mailed to taxpayers are abolished.
In practical terms, this abolishes the paper correspondence that has been largely in use until now. All documents will be communicated by posting them in the account that every person or legal entity has in the information system of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE). The taxpayer will receive a notification in their email and will enter the information system with their credentials to access the document.
It should be noted that this procedure is already in place for several notifications from AADE to taxpayers (e.g., when a installment of income tax is paid, AADE sends an email to the taxpayer notifying them to enter the information system to download the payment receipt). Communication through “traditional” methods (letters, deliveries, etc.) will only be done exceptionally, in very specific cases.
Significant intervention is also made regarding fines imposed for tax violations, specifically for repeat offenders. Currently, the penalties for repeat offenders are scattered across various articles of tax legislation. With a special provision included in the new tax bill, the penalty is applied strictly and specifically: “penalties are doubled in case of recurrence and quadrupled in case of a new recurrence.”
Furthermore, there is a maximum time limit set for the completion of tax audits, initially one year from the notification of the audit order, with the possibility of extension for 6 months if the audit has commenced in the meantime, and another 6 months under the condition that it’s feasible to complete the audit during that period. However, with a last-minute addition, the tax authority is given the possibility of an additional year beyond the two-year period. As the relevant provision states, “if the audit is not completed within the two years, a new audit order for the same subject can be granted only once and for an additional year. If the audit is still not completed, no new audit with the same subject is allowed.”
