No changes for import of vehicles in leasing

The payment regimen for the VAT on the leasing contracts for imported cars will not be changed in any way, as it is set by the Fiscal Code, Maria Manolescu, Finance Ministry’s state secretary in charge of the fiscal legislation told Ziarul Financiar. “Only the customs duties are being discussed. The VAT is not debated in any way,” Manolescu said, adding the former could get a different treatment from the latter, even though both are part of the so-called import rights, along with excises. Fiscal experts, however, doubt the customs duties are possible to apply to the value of the cars registered at the customhouse, as proposed by the Foreign Trade Department, while the VAT is billed in line with the leasing instalments, i.e. in line with the residual value of the imported car. Maria Manolescu, after all, signed a memo last year explaining it was impossible to apply the proposal of the Foreign Trade Department. Although the Department has already sent the proper ministries a second draft to complete and modify Ordinance 51/1997 republished, which regulates leasing business and companies, the document could be further modified, even though, theoretically, there is no way the regimen of customs duties on cars imported in leasing can be changed without taking the VAT regimen into account. ZF