The Act Amending the Corporate Income Tax Act and the Act Amending the Personal Income Tax Act recently came into effect and were published in the Official Gazette No. 30/2012. Essential changes to the legislation comprise of an increase of some of the tax reliefs and a decrease of the corporate income tax rate.
Major legislative changes are:
Lower corporate income tax rate
Corporate profit achieved in 2012 will be taxed at the rate of 18% instead of 20%. In the following years the tax rate is scheduled to decrease as follows:
for 2013: 17%
for 2014: 16%
for 2015: 15%
Increase of tax reliefs for companies and individuals
General tax relief for investment in research and development is increased from 40% to 100% of the invested amount, while the additional regional relief for these investments in the less developed parts of the country is being abolished. Unused regional reliefs can be exercised until the expiration deadline (5 years).
A relief for investments is increased from 30% to 40% of the amount invested in equipment and intangible long-term assets, while the upper limit for these reliefs (30.000 EUR) is being abolished. This increase also applies to investments in basic agricultural and forestry activities. The relief for investments and the relief for investment in research and development are mutually exclusive.
Changes came into effect on January 1, 2012.