The law providing for the reimbursement of taxes and fees to economic agents of Gagauzia from the budget of the autonomy, and not from the state budget, was declared unconstitutional.
This decision was made by the Constitutional Court of Moldova, declaring unconstitutional the amendments previously made by parliament to Article 6 of the Tax Code. At the same time, 2 out of 5 judges of the Constitutional Court expressed a dissenting opinion. The Constitutional Court decided that until the possible intervention of the parliament, VAT and excise taxes for economic agents from Gagauzia will be reimbursed from the state budget. The amounts of excise taxes and VAT paid by economic agents of Gagauzia from November 1, 2023 to February 22, 2024 will be reimbursed from the autonomy budget. Moreover, if the amount of compensation is higher than what is available in the autonomy’s budget, the difference will be covered from the state budget. The decision of the Constitutional Court is not subject to appeal; it will come into force after publication in the Monitorul Oficial. Recall that the amendments to Art. 6 Parliament adopted the Tax Code on October 5, they came into force on November 1, 2023. The document stipulates that reimbursement of VAT and excise taxes paid by business entities of an autonomous territorial entity with a special legal status is carried out from its budget. In the event that, after completion of budget execution, the amount to be reimbursed in connection with these types of income exceeds the amount of receipts, the difference is covered through special-purpose transfers from the state budget in the next budget year. The authors of this amendment motivated the project by the need to restore tax fairness, since contrary to the principles of budgetary and local autonomy, VAT refunds in favor of economic agents in the ATU Gagauzia are made at the expense of the state budget. Over the past 5 years, the central budget has reimbursed ATU Gagauzia more than 640 million lei in the form of VAT. It was emphasized that the approved legislative initiative is designed to ensure compliance with the principle of tax fairness between settlements of the country. // 05.03.2024 — InfoMarket
