Retroactive norms for six weeks

The enforcement guidelines for the income tax were published in the Official Gazette on Tuesday, six weeks after coming into force, on January 1, 2003.
The normative act includes a list of all types of cash and non-cash perks subject to taxation, along with instructions on how to appraise them for tax purposes.
The norms have gone through several modifications from the original version approved by the Government in December 2002, in response to the signals sent by the market about a series of unclear issues and controversies still persisting in the Exchequer’s view on the income tax legislation.
The final version chases away all fears of a retroactive enforcement of the guidelines for 2002. A tiny bit of retroactivity remains, though, because the norms were published way too late so that the economic operators had no idea how to handle their January-February 2003 financial reporting.
The notes about the taxation of employee benefits, including clarifications on taxing the insurance premiums for employees, are valid as of the fiscal year 2003.
The guidelines stipulate that anyone also obtaining an income in form of salary from the payer of the insurance premiums should have the premiums taxed by adding them to the salary of the month for which the premiums are paid.
Until the enforcement of these guidelines, in case the payer of the premiums registered and paid them as non-deductible expense, the premiums in question will not be subject to the above-mentioned treatment.
The guidelines also say that any non-cash income, as well as any non-cash perk is appraised at the market price valid in the place and at the time the perk was granted.
One can only expect that employers will have a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to appraise the non-cash perks derived from the use of the company’s assets by the employees both for business and for personal purposes.