Răspunderea întemeiată pe dispoziţiile art. 6 alin. (2) din Legea contabilităţii
Liability based on the Provisions of art. 6 par. (2) of the Accounting Law

Summary/Abstract: Amid increasingly intense tax audits and the sometimes rigid enforcement of norms by fiscal authorities, the issue of liability in VAT deductions and expense rejections has grown significantly in relevance. Authorities often cite – albeit indirectly – Article 6(2) of Accounting Law no. 82/1991 to justify the penalization of corporate taxpayers for formal irregularities committed by suppliers, upstream partners, or accounting personnel, including professional accountants. This practice jeopardizes the legal security of honest taxpayers and raises serious concerns about liability limits for third-party actions. This analysis seeks to show that the broad interpretation of Article 6 (2) goes beyond both the literal wording and the intended purpose of the law. Using grammatical, historical, and teleological interpretation, we argue that the provision was designed solely for natural persons and refers strictly to conduct within a single legal entity–namely, the actions of its employees. It was not intended to apply to relations between distinct legal entities. This conclusion is backed by the preparatory documents of the Accounting Law, pre-1989 regulations, and general civil liability principles. From a jurisprudential and administrative practice standpoint, a concerning trend emerges: the Romanian tax authority (ANAF) routinely relies on Article 6 (2) to deny deduction rights, despite the legal subject of such rights being the company itself, and not a natural person such as an accountant or a culpable supplier. Moreover, as we will show below, the High Court has on several occasions upheld this interpretation, thus reinforcing an administrative practice that is questionable from a legal perspective. This study has direct implications beyond the fundamental area of VAT deduction rights, notably for: (i) the protection of taxpayers against disproportionate sanctions, (ii) the clarification of the liability regime applicable to professional accountants, and (iii) the fair and correct application of sanctions in tax and procedural law, although these issues fall outside the immediate scope of the present paper.

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