Contents:
I.Laws governing our relationship with ANAF
II.ANAF officials, obliged to respect the law and the Code of Ethics of Conduct
II.1. What is the professional conduct of ANAF officials?
III.What do we do when we encounter unprofessional or abusive behaviour of an ANAF official?
III.1. Sanctions for unprofessional/abusive ANAF officials
As long as the state exists as a form of social organisation, taxes are part of our lives. There is no Romanian citizen who has not had dealings with the tax authorities, with ANAF.
In order not to perpetuate practices that affect our rights, it is necessary not to accept these facts, to take a stand and to denounce the unprofessional and/or abusive behaviour of state employees with whom we come into contact in our daily lives.
As in the whole Practical Guide of the project "Be informed, not abused!", here too, we talk about the tools and steps we have to take to defend our rights, identify abuses and fight against them, to get justice.
I. THE LAWS GOVERNING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ANAF
The legislation that brings clarification and rules to our relationship with ANAF is below:
- Tax Code[1] (Law no. 227/2015)
- The Tax Procedure Code[2] (Law no. 207 of 20 July 2015) shows how Law no. 227/2015 applies
- ANAF's organization and functioning regulation[3]
- More legislation can be found on the ANAF website, under the heading Taxpayer Assistance -Legislation[4]
- Code of professional behaviour[5]
- Administrative Code[6] (Government Emergency Ordinance 57/ 2019 on the Administrative Code), which applies to any public official, including ANAF officials
II.ANAF officials, obliged to respect the law and the Code of Ethics of Conduct
If something is unclear to us, we can ask the ANAF representatives and they will answer us, as the law says, within 30 days.
What do we do when we come across unprofessional, inappropriate behaviour by an official of the tax authorities? When his conduct, at the counter, in the control or in any other context in a relationship with the taxpayer is even abusive? We can complain about this.
The rules of the Code of Professional Conduct for Tax Officials also apply to delegated/detached staff of the ANAF and to those who temporarily occupy a public or contractual position, as well as to tax audits and inspections. în cazul controalelor și inspecțiilor fiscale.
Code of ethics of the ANAF official says:
- “Personalul are obligația de a nu aduce atingere onoarei, reputației și demnității persoanelor din cadrul ANAF, precum și persoanelor cu care intră în legătură în exercitarea funcției deținute, prin: întrebuințarea unor expresii jignitoare; dezvăluirea unor aspecte ale vieții private; formularea unor sesizări sau plângeri calomnioase.”
- "Prohibition of using the powers of office in an abusive manner, and prohibition of psychological or sexual harassment (Article 20 of the Code of Ethics)."
II.1. What is the professional conduct of ANAF officials?
ANAF staff must, according to the legislation in Chapter I of this material, behave in a civilised and decent manner.
They must not commit acts that may harm the citizen and the image of ANAF.
ANAF officials must behave in a civilised and decent manner when dealing with citizens.
Finally, what sanctions can be imposed on officials who culpably violate their duties and rules of conduct? According to the Administrative Code, they risk the following disciplinary sanctions:
- written reprimand;
- reduction of salary rights by 5-20% for up to three months;
- reduction of salary rights by 10-15% for up to one year;
- suspension of promotion rights for a period of between one and three years;
- demotion to a lower level post for up to one year, with a corresponding reduction in salary;
- dismissal from public office.
Of course, if the complaint and the ensuing internal control leads to the conclusion that a criminal offence may have been committed, the matter will be referred to the criminal prosecution authorities.
III.WHAT DO WE DO WHEN WE ENCOUNTER UNPROFESSIONAL OR ABUSIVE BEHAVIOUR BY AN ANAF OFFICIAL?
We need to know our rights in order to defend them.
When, in our relationship as citizens and taxpayers with the ANAF, we come up against an unprofessional or abusive official, we have tools we can use. In this way, the ANAF official will be held accountable for his actions and we defend our rights.
We report breaches of the rules of conduct:
- prin completarea formularului on-line disponibil aici: https://www.anaf.ro/asistpublic/ ;
- by a letter to the ANAF, drawn up on the basis of Government Ordinance no. 27/2002 on the regulation of the petitions handling activity[7], as we do in any case, in the case of petitions;
- by submitting a complaint to the Disciplinary Commission, by lodging a complaint with the registry of the institution where the official works, on the basis of GD no. 1344/2007[8].
Anonymous petitions or those that do not contain our identification data and these are NOT taken into account.
III.1. Sanctions for unprofessional/abusive ANAF officials
According to the Administrative Code, they risk the following disciplinary sanctions:
- written reprimand;
- reduction of salary rights by 5-20% for up to three months;
- reduction of salary rights by 10-15% for up to one year;
- suspension of promotion rights for a period of between one and three years;
- demotion to a lower level post for up to one year, with a corresponding reduction in salary;
- dismissal from public office.
Note: If, as a result of the referral and the internal control carried out, following our referrals, it turns out that the act of the ANAF official who violated our rights or/and was abusive is criminal, then the criminal prosecution authorities will be notified.
[1] The Tax Code, up to date, is available here: http://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/174527
[2]The Tax Procedure Code, up to date, is available at: http://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/172697
[3] The ANAF's organisational and operational regulations are available at:
[4] The legislation is available here:
[5] The code of professional conduct for ANAF employees in relation to citizens is available here:
[6] The Administrative Code is, in fact, the Government Emergency Ordinance, no. 57/ 2019 on the Administrative Code available at http://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/215925)
[7] Ordinance no. 27 /2002 on the regulation of the activity of petition resolution is available here: http://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/33817
[8] Government Decision no. 1.344/2007 on the rules of organisation and functioning of disciplinary committees is available here: http://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/86891