The practice of gambling in 2021
Practical aspects related to the preparation and submission of the annual financial statements of the gambling organizers for 2020
Article from the series “Gambling practice”, by Anchidim Zagrean, vice-president of ROMBET
The organizers of gambling are obliged to comply with the provisions of the applicable accounting regulations and for their compliance and implementation they must:
1) to organize and manage the financial accounting, in Romanian and in the national currency;
2) to organize and manage the accounting, in such a way as to ensure: a) the chronological and systematic registration of the operations; b) processing, publishing and keeping information on the financial position, financial performance and other information related to the activity carried out, both for their internal requirements and in relations with present and potential investors, financial and commercial creditors, customers, public institutions and other users;
3) to record, at the time of carrying out each economic-financial operation, in the supporting document, which should be the basis of the accounting records. For the recording of operations, regarding the conduct of gambling, will be used the registers and supporting documents specific to this activity, provided in Order 135 of 2016 of the ONJN;
4) to draw up and keep, in written or electronic form, the obligatory accounting registers, including the register of fiscal records, as well as those specific to gambling;
5) to carry out the general inventory of the elements of the nature of assets, liabilities and equity held at the beginning of the activity, at least once during the financial year;
6) to establish the final result of the financial year, cumulated from the beginning of the financial year, by closing the income and expenditure accounts at the end of the financial year;
7) to prepare the annual financial statements and which must provide a true and fair view of the financial position, financial performance and other information relating to the activity carried out;
8) to submit the annual financial statements to the territorial units of the Ministry of Public Finance, within 150 days from the end of the financial year and after their approval by the general meeting of shareholders or associates.
The concrete way of implementing these provisions, as well as the practical compliance measures, can be found in: a) The norms of application of the Fiscal Code; b) MFP orders no. 2634/2015 regarding the financial-accounting documents and no. 1802, of December 29, 2014, for the approval of the accounting regulations regarding the individual annual financial statements and the consolidated annual financial statements; c) ONJN Order no. 135/2016 regarding the approval of the general norms for drawing up and using the specific mandatory registers and forms in the field of gambling, the specific norms for completing and using the specific mandatory registers and forms in the field of gambling, as well as of their models, by types of gambling.
In order to complete the operations necessary for the preparation and submission of annual financial statements for 2020, the Ministry of Public Finance published Order 58 of 2021, and gambling organizers must make a series of adjustments and financial-accounting treatments, including:
1. Rectification of tax returns, for the year 2020, as a result of regulations adopted for the period of emergency or alert and according to which gambling activity has been prohibited or restricted. As a result of these changes, which were made in determining the level of tax burdens, the taxes declared and due must be recalculated and then recorded in the accounts, by rectifying the expense accounts. The level of these expenses must be in accordance with the new obligations, established and due, according to the period in which the gambling organizers were active;
2. The application of facilities or exemptions to the payment of corporate tax, provided by law, and which require a series of prior operations, such as:
A) Exemption from reinvested profit tax
Tax exemption on profit reinvested in: a) technological equipment, electronic computers and peripheral equipment, machines and household appliances, control and billing, in computer programs, as well as for the right to use computer programs, produced or purchased, including based on financial leasing contracts, and put into operation, used for the purpose of carrying out economic activity; or b) in support of vocational-dual education by ensuring the practical training and quality training of students.
In view of the fact that, in 2020, this facility, with regard to the tax exemption of reinvested profits, the following rules must be taken into account:
1. the invested profit represents the balance of the profit and loss account, respectively the gross accounting profit cumulated from the beginning of the year, obtained until the quarter or in the year of commissioning of the assets. The income tax exemption related to the investments made is granted within the limit of the cumulative profit tax calculated from the beginning of the year until the quarter of the commissioning of the assets, for the taxpayers who apply the quarterly profit tax declaration and payment system, respectively within the profit, calculated cumulatively from the beginning of the year of commissioning of the assets, until the end of the respective year for the taxpayers who apply the annual system of declaration and payment of the profit tax;
2. the exemption shall be calculated quarterly or annually, as appropriate. The amount of the profit for which he benefited from the profit tax exemption, less the part related to the legal reserve, is distributed at the end of the financial year or during the following year, with priority for the establishment of reserves, up to the accounting profit recorded at the end of the financial year. If at the end of the financial year an accounting loss is realized, the profit tax is not recalculated related to the invested profit, and the taxpayer does not distribute to the reserves the amount of the invested profit;
3. the taxpayers who benefit from this exemption have the obligation to keep in the patrimony the respective assets at least a period equal to half of the duration of economic use, established according to the applicable accounting regulations, but not more than 5 years. In case of non-compliance with this condition, for the respective amounts, the profit tax is recalculated and ancillary fiscal receivables are collected according to the Fiscal Procedure Code, from the date of application of the facility, according to the law. In this case, the taxpayer has the obligation to submit the amending tax return;
4. taxpayers who benefit from the tax exemption of the reinvested profit cannot opt for the accelerated depreciation method for the respective assets.
B) Deduction from the profit tax of the cost of fiscal electronic cash registers
Taxpayers who purchase electronic fiscal cash registers deduct their acquisition cost from the income tax due for the quarter in which they were put into operation, if they owe quarterly income tax, or from the annual income tax, in the case of taxpayers who applies the annual corporate tax return and payment system. The amounts that are not deducted from the profit tax, due to its value insufficiency, are carried forward for the next 7 consecutive years. The recovery of these amounts will be carried out in the order of their registration, under the same conditions, at each term of payment of the profit tax.
Taxpayers who owe profit tax, at the date of determining the profit tax for 2020, deduct from the profit tax and the acquisition cost of electronic fiscal cash registers, purchased and put into operation in 2018, in 2019, as well as those put into operation in 2020, provided that at the date of purchase of the respective electronic fiscal cash registers the taxpayers were payers of income tax, regardless of the declaration and payment system.
Given that this fiscal facility is used, in 2020, and it also applies to the purchases of electronic fiscal cash registers, put into operation in 2018 and 2019, it must be taken into account that:
1. it is not possible to benefit from several tax facilities, for the same operation, therefore the purchase expense or the depreciation expense become non-tax deductible expenses, when calculating the profit tax;
2. the fiscal profit of 2020 will be rectified, with the non-deductible expenses of the acquisition or depreciation related to the years 2018, 2019 and 2020, adding to the tax due the value of the exempt profit tax related to these devices, which benefited in those periods.
We return with other opinions, in the next issue of the magazine …
