Rezumat: The Government Ordinance No. 16/2022 has some novelties with regard to the tax treatment of dividends. Thus, starting with the 1st of January 2023, the dividend tax rate increases from 5% to 8% for the dividends paid to legal persons and to resident/non-resident natural persons, as well as to privately administered pension funds and to the optional pension funds. As an element of novelty, the Government Ordinance No. 16/2022 brings a series of clarifications regarding the conditions that must be fulfilled in view of applying the exemption of dividend payments made by a Romanian legal person to another one, with regard to the form of organisation and the application of the profit tax or of another tax which replaces it, without the possibility of an option or exemption.
Besides the increase of the tax rate, the Government Ordinance No. 16/2022 also brings changes with regard to the health contribution rules for the dividend incomes. Thus, starting with the incomes corresponding to 2023, the payment obligation of the health contribution for the dividends collected by the natural persons appears from the six minimum salaries ceiling, compared to the 12 salaries ceiling in the previous year. While the dividend tax is applied according to the year of their distribution, the health insurance contribution is applied by taking into account their actual collection date.
If the dividends are distributed during 2022, but are paid in 2023, the taxation rate is kept at 5%, but the health insurance contribution falls within the rules from the year of their collection. The distribution of dividends can be made annually, after the approval of the annual financial statements corresponding to the ended financial year, or quarterly, throughout the year, after the approval of the interim financial statements. Law No. 370/2022 clarifies the fact that, in case the company decided to distribute dividends based on the interim financial statements prepared during 2022, the 5% taxation rate is kept, without recalculating the tax on the respective dividends after their regularisation based on the annual financial statements corresponding to the financial year 2022, approved according to the legal regulations.