BUCHAREST – RTPR Allen & Overy won a tax litigation against the National Agency for Fiscal Administration in front of the Bucharest Court of Appeal in which it succeeded to obtain VAT reimbursement of approximately 4 million lei in the benefit of a non-resident company acting in the industrial engineering and construction services sector.
The RTPR Allen & Overy team included Adriana Dobre, Senior Associate and Ana Popa (Nedelcu), Associate.
The core issue in the case was to accurately determine the nature of services provided and implicitly the place of taxation of the respective operations in order to establish the applicable VAT regime and NAFA’s obligation to reimburse the VAT paid in Romania by the non-resident legal entity, which is not registered for VAT purposes in Romania.
Adriana Dobre declared: “The complexity of this case has arisen in the context of missing definition in the tax legislation of the concept of “immovable property”. In addition, this has been emphasized by the fact that the operations for which VAT reimbursement was requested related to services provided by the non-resident legal entity to the same Romanian beneficiary in a complex refurbishment project and consisted of services supplied in relation to both movable and immovable properties. This led to the tax authorities applying a single tax regime to the whole set of operations, without any distinction by reference to the nature of the services provided. Hence, in consideration of the services provided the tax authority held that the company should have had the obligation to register for VAT purposes in Romania and therefore rejected the VAT reimbursement.”
Ana Popa added: “Given the technical aspects in the case, apart from the submission of a considerable amount of documents, it was necessary to administrate a complex tax judicial expert report which was drafted with the involvement of tax specialists from Deloitte Tax S.R.L. – Ileana Popescu and Vlad Boeriu.”
RTPR was founded in 2004 and has been working in association with the London based international law firm Allen & Overy LLP since 2008. RTPR Allen & Overy has 42 lawyers, including 5 partners: Costin Tărăcilă, Victor Pădurari, Alexandru Retevoescu, Mihai Ristici, Valentin Berea and Professor Lucian Mihai, Of counsel.
RTPR Allen & Overy’s main areas of activity are: financing, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, insolvency and restructuring, competition, labour law, intellectual property law, litigation and arbitration, and providing advice across a range of business sectors including energy, telecommunications, finance, real estate and the pharmaceutical industry.
Selected litigation cases in which RTPR Allen & Overy have been recently involved are set out below:
- successfully represented the National Bank of Romania before the High Court of Cassation and Justice in relation to a dispute with the ultimate shareholder of Banca Carpatica.
- successfully represented a reputed international bank in a commercial dispute whereby the client is being sued for an alleged receivable in amount of USD 370 million.
- successfully represented Tymbark Maspex in court proceedings in relation to the annulment of the decision of the Competition Council in an investigation in which Metro, Selgros and Mega Image were investigated.
- Aegon Societate de Administrare a unui Fond de Pensii Administrat Privat S.A., manager of mandatory private pension funds (pillar II), in the lawsuit for the annulment of the decision of the Competition Council under which the company was sanctioned along with other managing companies of mandatory private pension funds (Pillar II) for an alleged allocation of customers. The fine imposed on Aegon was reduced with over 80%.
- MOL Romania in court proceedings against the decision of the Romanian Competition Council by which all six major oil companies active in Romania were fined for an alleged cartel concerning the withdrawal from the market of a fuel type in a case with total fines exceeding EUR 200 million. The court has irrevocably ruled for the partial annulment of the decision and the substantial reduction of the fine.
- Profi Rom Food in court proceedings against the decision of the Romanian Competition Council fining a vertical price fixing agreement. The fine has been irrevocably reduced by the High Court of Cassation and Justice with 75%.
- Note to the editors:
- Allen & Overy is an international legal practice with approximately 5,400 staff, including some 554 partners, working in 44 major cities worldwide.
- RTPR was incorporated in 2004 and has been working in association with Allen & Overy since 2008. RTPR Allen & Overy has a team of 45 lawyers, including 5 partners: Costin Tărăcilă, Victor Pădurari, Alexandru Retevoescu, Mihai Ristici, Valentin Berea and also Prof Dr Lucian Mihai, Of counsel.
- In this press release, “Allen & Overy” means Allen & Overy LLP and/or its affiliated undertakings.
- In this press release, “RTPR Allen & Overy” means Radu Tărăcilă Pădurari Retevoescu SCA in association with Allen & Overy LLP.
- Allen & Overy has been operating in the CEE region since 1991, when its first office opened in Warsaw. Since then, it has expanded its operations to include Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Bratislava and Moscow, all of which are renowned in the market for top quality legal advice combined with local commercial understanding, as well as for their integrity and their pro-active approach to matters. Additionally, Allen & Overy signed an exclusive association with the leading full-service Romanian law firm Radu Tărăcilă Pădurari Retevoescu SCA (RTPR), effective from July 2008, expanding the number of CEE offices in which we are able to provide local law advice to six.