D&B David and Baias, the Romanian firm associated with PWC, successfully represented Rafinaria Steaua Romana in the Romanian High Court of Cassation and Justice.
The High Court ordered ANAF (the National Agency for Fiscal Administration in Romania) to pay default interest on late VAT refunds to Rafinaria Steaua Romana. Dan Dascalu, the Partner who lead the D&B team in the case stated: "This final ruling of the High Court is the natural consequence of the judgment pronounced by the European Court of Justice in the case of Rafinaria Steaua Romana vs. ANAF. The historic ruling in this case file created the European case law that will entitle any taxpayer who has received late VAT refunds from the State to request the award of default interest accruing on the respective amounts. At this time we have several case files pending in courts pertaining to similar cases, and we are confident that we will obtain similar results. Nevertheless, for the long term we hope our efforts will lead to an improved VAT refund system in Romania, so that the companies will no longer have to suffer VAT refund delays, and the State be put in position to pay default interest, and so we can also avoid the infringement of the European laws in these matters"
