The order the steps have to follow
Almost every problem that appears when a company changes accountant comes from a single inversion: the contract is terminated before a handover plan exists. The order that works has four moments, in this sequence.
- Talk to the new accountant and fix the takeover month. Not “from now”, but a specific month: who files for the period that closed and who starts with the next one.
- Request the handover file. The list is best sent by the new accountant, on the company’s behalf.
- Verify what arrives. The opening trial balance is reconciled against the returns actually filed and against the taxpayer ledger.
- Move the access rights and terminate the contract, observing the notice period.
The termination notice comes last because it is the only irreversible step. Everything else can be repeated.
What to request from your current accountant
The minimum list, for a company keeping double-entry accounts:
- the trial balance at the handover date, with analytical balances, not only synthetic ones;
- the journal ledger, the inventory register and the general ledger;
- the fixed asset register and the depreciation schedule;
- customer and supplier account cards, with balances broken down by document;
- the inventory position, if the company carries stock;
- the returns filed in the last 12 months, together with the official receipts;
- the last annual financial statements filed;
- the SAF-T files submitted and the VAT journals behind them;
- payroll records, Revisal and personnel files, if payroll was handled as well.
Two items are missing most often: the analytical balances for customers and suppliers, and the fixed asset register. Without the first, you cannot tell which invoices make up the RON 412,000 balance on account 4111; without the second, depreciation restarts from estimates and the carrying amount in the accounts is no longer backed by documents.
The checks that come before “taken over”
A file accepted without verification moves someone else’s problems into your books. Three reconciliations cover most situations.
The trial balance against the returns filed. VAT in accounts 4423 and 4424 has to match the closing position of the last VAT return. Income tax and contributions in accounts 431 and 436 have to match the last D112.
The trial balance against the taxpayer ledger. The ledger is downloaded from the Virtual Private Space and shows what ANAF believes you owe. Differences against the books are usually misallocated payments, unrecorded interest, or returns the company did not know had never been filed.
The filing history. It is checked month by month against the official receipts, not against returns saved locally. A return that was generated but never transmitted looks identical in the accountant’s folder.
A worked example
A company hands its books over in October. Reconciling the taxpayer ledger against the accounts shows that the VAT return for July, with RON 12,400 payable, was never transmitted although it had been prepared.
The deadline was 25 August. The return is filed and paid on 9 October, 45 days later:
- interest: 12,400 × 0.02% × 45 = RON 111.60;
- late payment penalty: 12,400 × 0.01% × 45 = RON 55.80;
- total: RON 167.40.
On top of that comes the fine for failing to file on time: under art. 336 (1) (b) and (2) (d) of the Fiscal Procedure Code, between RON 1,000 and 5,000 for medium and large taxpayers, and between RON 500 and 1,000 for other legal entities.
The interest is small. What is not small is the alternative: the same omission, found two years later during an audit, passes RON 1,800 in interest and penalties alone, and the missing return stays as a flag in ANAF’s risk system. Any such case can be worked out in the interest and penalty calculator.
Access rights, in the order that leaves no gap
Filings through the Virtual Private Space are made with the representative’s digital certificate. When the representative changes, the sequence is:
- register the new power of attorney;
- confirm it works, through a real filing that is currently due;
- only then withdraw the old one.
The same logic applies to the national e-invoicing system and to the invoicing software. Withdrawing the old rights too early is the second most frequent cause of unfiled returns in the month of the switch — the first being the absence of a clear agreement about who files for the period that closed.
When to move
31 December is the cleanest moment, because the year closes with the annual financial statements filed by the previous firm. Right after the VAT return is filed is the second good option: the tax period is closed and the balances have already been matched against the return.
Otherwise any month end works. A file with arrears gets worse every month in which nothing happens, and interest runs daily regardless of who keeps the books.
If the old accountant goes quiet
Two routes run in parallel.
From the Virtual Private Space you download the filed returns, the receipts and the taxpayer ledger. Under your power of attorney, the tax history is rebuilt without the previous firm’s cooperation.
From the source you recover the primary documents: bank statements, purchase invoices from the national e-invoicing system, sales invoices from your own software, contracts. For documents that cannot be obtained any other way, art. 26 of Accounting Law no. 82/1991 sets out the reconstitution procedure, with a 30-day deadline from the moment the loss is established.
A complete blockage is rare. What happens more often is a partial handover, delivered in stages, which delays the takeover by a few weeks without preventing it.
What we do at a handover
We send the document list and keep the correspondence going until the file is complete, reconcile the opening balance against the returns filed and against the taxpayer ledger, set up the access rights in the order above, and give you in writing what we found, with the order of correction and the cost, before anything starts. The steps, the full document list and what the monthly fee covers are on the page about changing your accountant, and the deadlines your company takes over can be generated in the tax deadlines calendar.
