Due to the fact that the gambling special regulation in Romania allows the exploitation of gambling, jointly or not, between an organizer and one or more economic operators or individuals between whom there is a contract concluded under the law, the most practical form the exploitation of gambling is represented by the joint venture.
According to the legal provisions, this type of contract includes mandatory elements and then conventional clauses between the parties:
- granting one or more persons a share in the profits and losses of one or more operations which they undertake;
- the contract is proved only in writing;
- cannot acquire legal personality and does not constitute to third parties a person distinct from the person of the associates;
- the third party has no right to the association and is bound only to the partner with whom it has contracted;
- the associates remain the owners of the goods made available to the association;
- may agree that the goods brought in the association, as well as those obtained from their use, become common property;
- the goods made available to the association may pass, in whole or in part, into the property of one of the associates for the purpose of the association, under the conditions agreed by contract and in compliance with the publicity formalities provided by law;
- the associates can stipulate the recovery in kind of the goods at the termination of the association;
- the associates, even acting on behalf of the association, contract and undertake in their own name towards third parties but are held jointly and severally by the documents concluded by any of them;
- the associates exercise all the rights deriving from the contracts concluded by any of them, but the third party is held exclusively towards the associate with whom he contracted unless the latter declared his quality at the moment of concluding the act;
- any clause in the association contract which limits the liability of the partners towards third parties is not applicable to them;
- any clause setting a guaranteed minimum level of benefits for one or more of the members is considered unwritten;
- the agreement of the parties determines the form of the contract, the extent, and conditions of the association, as well as the causes of its dissolution and liquidation.
In order to organize and manage the accounting as well as for the application of the appropriate fiscal treatment, joint ventures without legal personality, it must be taken into account that:
- joint ventures do not give rise to a separate taxable person;
- in an association, between two or more Romanian legal entities, the registered income and expenses are attributed to each partner, according to the provisions of the association contract;
- the income and expenses, determined by the operations of the association, transmitted on the basis of a statement to each member, according to the applicable accounting regulations, are taken into account for determining the taxable profit of each member;
- the supporting documents related to the operations of the association are those that were the basis for the registration in the accounting records by the person appointed by the associates, according to the provisions of the association contract;
- the company that keeps the records of the joint venture keeps records and draws up a verification balance distinct from those corresponding to its own activity;
- the tangible and intangible assets, made available to the association, are included in the accounting records of the one who owns them;
- the expenses and incomes determined by the operations of the joint ventures are accounted separately by one of the associates, according to the provisions of the association contract;
- at the end of the reporting period, the expenses and revenues recorded by nature are sent on the basis of a statement to each partner, in order to record them in their own accounts;
- at the balance sheet date, the assets of the nature of stocks, receivables, cash, as well as of the debts of the joint venture, are registered in the annual financial statements of the associate that keeps the records of the association.
The accounting records of the settlements from the joint operations, for the activity of the joint ventures, are kept with the help of account 458 “Settlements from joint operations”, respectively of the settlement of expenses and incomes realized from joint operations, as well as of the amounts transferred between co-participants.
Account 458 “Settlements from joint ventures” is a bifunctional account;
1. In the credit of account 458 “Settlements from joint operations” it is recorded:
- revenues from joint operations transferred to co-participants, according to the association agreement (701 to 781);
- expenses received by transfer from joint ventures, including depreciation calculated by the owner of the asset (601 to 681);
- amounts received from co-participants (512, 531).
2. The debit of account 458 “Settlements from joint ventures” shall record:
- income received by transfer from joint ventures (701 to 781);
- the expenses transferred from joint operations, including the depreciation calculated by the owner of the asset, which is sent to the co-participant who keeps records of the joint operations according to the contracts (601 to 681);
- amounts paid to co-participants or transferred as a result of joint operations (512, 531).
3. The credit balance of the account represents the amounts due to the co-participants as a favorable result (profit) from joint operations, as well as the amounts owed by the co-participants to cover the eventual losses registered from joint operations
4. The debit balance of the account represents the amounts receivable from the co-participants to cover the eventual losses registered from joint operations, as well as the amounts to be collected by the co-participants from joint operations as a favorable result (profit).
