OMV Petrom: The solidarity tax for fiscal year 2022 does not apply to OMV Petrom
The solidarity tax for fiscal year 2022 does not apply to OMV Petrom, according to the information sent to BVB. That is, he will not pay the tax in Romania, but the OMV says that the tax applies in Austria. Thus, OMV Vienna announced that the solidarity tax in Austria will have a negative impact of approximately 150 million euros for the year 2022, based on preliminary financial figures, the company announced today. This will be reflected only in 2023.

At BVB, SNP said: "EU Regulation 1854/2022, which introduced a temporary solidarity contribution, was transposed into Romanian legislation by Government Emergency Ordinance no. 186[i] published on December 29, 2022. Based on our preliminary financial results for 2022 and the provisions of this emergency ordinance, we expect that OMV Petrom will not be eligible for this solidarity contribution for fiscal year 2022, having under 75% of the turnover in the defined sectors: crude oil extraction, natural gas extraction, oil extraction and manufacture of products obtained from oil refining. For the first 9 months of 2022, OMV Petrom has already paid royalties, additional taxes and other industry-specific contributions of approximately 5.2 billion lei to the State Budget of Romania, to which approximately 1.6 billion lei in profit tax is added. In total, for the first 9 months of 2022, they represent approximately 60% of gross profit before tax and have increased more than 6 times compared to the same period of the previous year. The preliminary financial results for the year 2022 and the fourth quarter of 2022 will be published on February 2, 2023".

According to some political sources, although the European Regulations are not transposed, through the GEO it issued at the end of the year, the Government not only established a percentage of taxation that was the responsibility of the member state, but also published a series of CAEN codes of applicability that SNP Petrom interprets as a possible restriction of the scope of applicability of the Regulation.

The government approved, at the end of last year, the transposition of the Regulation on the taxation of super-profits of energy companies, following the measure 3.9 billion lei will be collected in a special fund, according to Mihai Diaconu, secretary of state in the Ministry of Finance, at the end of the Government meeting.

"The Government approved, at the proposal of the Minister of Finance, the Emergency Ordinance regarding some measures to implement Council Regulation 1854 on 2022, of October 6, 2022, regarding an emergency intervention to approve the problem of high energy prices. As the title also mentions, the Regulation was recently approved by the Council on October 6, 2022. The main reason is, on the one hand, to protect vulnerable categories of the population against the effects of rising energy prices and, on the other hand, the main objective of The Government of Romania and including the one stipulated in the European Regulation is to ensure the financing of investments in strategic energy projects, especially in those from renewable sources. Therefore, we are dealing with a transposition of a European regulation that applies to all member states. Holland, France, Germany, for example, have imposed a 33% share of these extra-profits or let's call them super-profits of the companies active in the field. Ireland has also transposed the Regulation and is going for a tax rate of 75%, Italy has chosen 50% of profits for the year 2023. The Czech Republic, a state comparable to Romania, we say, has imposed a tax rate of 60%, Greece 90% Therefore, all of Europe demands this contribution of solidarity and Romania must align itself as a member of the European Union with this Regulation. We are talking about super-profits in the field, in times when the prices of energy products are volatile. For some states, fortunately this is not the case in Romania, resources are difficult to identify and the population needs support in these complicated times", Mihai Diaconu said at the end of the year.

According to the Secretary of State, the targeted companies are solid companies with considerable profits, "those that in the past years have performed extraordinarily, and now it is their turn, as stipulated by the European Regulation, to contribute to getting over this difficult period as easily as possible".

Taxpayers are commercial companies that carry out activities in the crude oil, natural gas, coal and refineries sectors. The taxable base is represented by what exceeds by more than 20% the average profits for the last four years, respectively 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

"As the Regulation stipulates, Romania has transposed this provision word for word, so to speak. The tax rate is 60% of the extra profit that exceeds the average by 20%. And, what is very important, as I mentioned earlier, of this amount collected in this special fund, at least 70% will be distributed to finance strategic investments, as well as investments in energy efficiency and energy from renewable sources. The payment deadline will be June 25, 2023, respectively for the profit of the year that has not yet been completed, 2022, and June 25, 2024 for the profit that will be realized in 2023", explained Mihai Diaconu.

He mentioned that the project obtained the approval of the Economic and Social Council (CES) on Wednesday.

When asked how the money is divided, the state secretary specified that the ordinance establishes only the "primary basis", and through a Government Decision, based on the proposals of the Ministry of Energy, the concrete criteria and mechanism will be defined. The money will be in an available account at the Treasury and will be accessed as the investments are made. Investments can also be made by companies that are taxpayers. The main purpose of the measure is to encourage investments.
Also, when asked about the amounts that could be collected in the respective fund, Mihai Diaconu stated that the estimates of the Ministry of Finance are rather pessimistic, of at least 3.9 billion RON.


Source: https://financialintelligence.ro/

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