Tax rates

Standard VAT rate: 19%

Reduced rate: 9%, e.g. for:

• pharmaceuticals for human and veterinarian use
• food and beverages for human and animal consumption (with the exception of alcohol, non-alcoholic beverages falling under CN 2202 and food with added sugar whose total sugar content is 10g per 100g of product or higher)
• water used for consumption and for agricultural irrigation
• fertilizers and pesticides, seeds and other agricultural products for seeding and planting, as well as certain agricultural services
• accommodation within the hotel sector or sectors with a similar function
• restaurant and food delivery services (with the exception of alcoholic beverages, as well as non-alcoholic beverages falling under CN code 2202)
• admission to cinemas, trade fairs and exhibitions (previous 5%)
• supplies of residential properties to individuals, under certain conditions (previous 5%)
• delivery and installation of photovoltaic panels to individuals or public entities (previous 5%)

Reduced rate: 5% for:

• books, newspapers, periodicals etc.
• admission to castles, museums, memorial houses, historical monuments, architectural and archaeological monuments, zoos, and botanical gardens
• supply of firewood
• supply of thermal energy during the cold season to the population and other categories of consumer (i.e. public and private hospitals, non-governmental organisations and suppliers of social services)

Supply of goods

Supply of goods and withdrawal for private use (self supply) are taxable.

Supply of services

Supply of services and use of services for private use (self-supply) are taxable.

Mini-One-Stop-Shop (MOSS) / One-Stop-Shop (OSS)

As of July 2021, the One-Stop-Shop ("OSS") VAT schemes have been implemented. The system already existed in the Romanian Fiscal Code under the name “Mini One Stop Shop” (MOSS), but only for electronic services (telecom, radio and TV services) provided by taxable persons from an EU member state or third country to consumers within the EU.

As compared to the MOSS system, this enlarged OSS covers three special regimes:

1. the special regime for certain services provided by taxable persons not established in European Union towards non-taxable persons (B2C services);
2. the special regime for intra-community distance sales of goods between member states, for deliveries of domestic goods made by electronic interfaces facilitating such deliveries and for certain services provided by taxable persons established in EU towards non-taxable persons but not in the Member State of consumption;
3. the special regime for the distance sale of goods imported from outside EU to EU consumers with value up to EUR 150.

The OSS scheme enables suppliers of goods and services to EU consumers in a B2C (business-to-consumer) context to fulfill their VAT obligations across all Member States by reporting and paying VAT in the Member State in which they registered for the OSS. This eliminates the need for registration for VAT purposes in multiple EU states.

Reverse Charge (reversal of tax liability)

For: (i) acquisitions of services by Romanian taxable persons from providers not established in Romania; (ii) acquisitions of goods by Romanian taxable persons from non-Romanian suppliers, under certain conditions.

As special regulations, for the following transactions between Romanian entities: supply of waste, wood, cereals, greenhouse gas emissions certificates, green certificates, electricity supplied to taxable energy traders, natural gas supplied to a taxable person trader, buildings and land taxable by law or by option, mobile phones, laptops, PC tablets and other similar components.

For cereals, energy, green certificates, mobile phones, laptops, PC tablets and other similar components the reverse charge mechanism is applicable until 31 December 2026.

Tax reliefs

Deductible input VAT

Taxable persons have the right to deduct VAT related to purchases provided that (i) the acquisitions are made for the purpose of carrying out VAT taxable operations or other operations allowing the deduction of input VAT, such as exports or intra-community supplies and that (ii) the taxable persons possess invoices issued in accordance with the legal requirements.

Generally, no deduction of input VAT may be claimed with respect to supplies which are exempt without deduction right or are not used for the purpose of taxable / exempt with credit operations. Only 50% VAT may be deducted on acquisitions related to cars not used exclusively for business purposes (e.g. vehicles other than the ones used for emergency services, sale agents, transport of persons, taxis etc.).

Starting with 30 April 2024, it is no longer possible to deduct the input value-added tax stated on invoices issued in the name of employees or administrators while on business trips and relating to transport and/or accommodation services paid for during these trips

Input VAT correction

Input VAT corrections occur in cases such as:

• the deduction is higher or lower than the one that the taxable person had the right to operate
• there are changes to the elements taken into account for the determination of the deductible amount, made after the submission of the tax statement.

Input VAT corrections occur for capital goods over a period of 5 years, while for land and buildings the period is extended to 20 years.

Real estate

Foreign taxable persons

Taxable persons without domicile or permanent establishment in Romania.

E-invoicing

Starting 1 January 2024, the electronic invoicing system is mandatory for:

• Supplies of goods / services with place of supply/provision in Romania, carried out in B2B transactions or in relation to public institutions (other than B2G) by taxable persons established in Romania (i.e. Romanian legal entities or Romanian fixed establishments of foreign companies), regardless of whether they are registered for VAT purposes in Romania.
• Supplies of goods / services with place of supply / provision in Romania carried out in B2B transactions by non-residents registered for VAT purposes in Romania.

The following are exempt from the above:

• exports of goods carried out by the supplier or another person on his behalf;
• intra-Community supplies of goods with the place of departure in Romania
• the supply of goods/services to taxable persons not established nor registered for VAT purposes in Romania;
• invoices for simplified invoices;
• services for which the issuance of invoices is not subject to the invoicing rules applicable in Romania;

Starting from July 1, 2024, amendments are made to the Fiscal Code, according to which, in the case of B2B business relationships between legal entities established in Romania, only invoices transmitted through the RO e-Invoice system will be recognized as valid tax documents and will be acceptable with a view to exercising VAT deduction rights.

As of July 2024, the use of the electronic invoicing system will be extended to transactions between economic operators, taxable persons established in Romania, regardless of their VAT registration status, and final consumers (B2C). This extension will be optional from 1 July 2024 to 31 December 2024, and mandatory starting from 1 January 2025.

B2C transactions are defined as deliveries of goods or services to individuals who either do not provide a tax identification code or choose to identify themselves with a personal numeric code. In cases where no tax identification code is supplied, invoices are issued using a code of 13 zeros as the beneficiary's tax ID.

Starting 2025, the submission of electronic invoices will no longer be mandatory for two categories of B2B transactions:

• invoices for the supply of goods and provision of services where the place of supply or provision is not in Romania;
• invoices for intra-community supplies of goods, where the beneficiary established in Romania communicates a VAT number from another member state.

Simplified invoices issued in B2B and B2C relationships must be submitted in the RO e-Invoice system, with the exception of fiscal receipts that meet the conditions of a simplified invoice (until 31.12.2024, simplified invoices were not required to be submitted in the RO e-Invoice system).

RO e-Transport

Originally, the RO e-Transport system through which identification of shipments and generation of Unique Transport Codes is made applied in case of road transport of goods with high fiscal risk within Romanian national territory (these goods are included on a list that should be constantly monitored). The penalties for non-compliance with the system are in force starting January 2023. Subject to the monitoring were only the road transport of goods with high fiscal risk within Romanian national territory – performed by road vehicles with a maximum authorized mass of at least 2,5 tones and which transport goods with a total gross mass exceeding 500 kg or a total value of at least 10.000 RON.

Starting with 15 December 2023, the applicability of the RO e-Transport system was extended to cover, in addition to the road transport of goods with high fiscal risk, the international road transport of goods.

Currently, irrespective of the goods transported, the RO e-Transport system aims to monitor in real time the:

• intra-Community acquisitions and imports in Romania;
• intra-Community deliveries and exports from Romania;
• various non-transfers from or to Romania;
• goods transported under the call-off stock regime either to Romania or from Romania;
• intra-Community transit of goods, both for goods unloaded on Romanian territory for storage or for the settling of a new transport of one or more categories of goods, as well as for goods loaded after storage or after the settling of a new transport on national territory of one or more categories of goods.

In addition to the above operations, in the case of goods with high fiscal risk, there are also various transports for which the RO e-Transport system applies, such as: transactions within Romanian national territory (such as a local sale of high fiscal risk goods), goods transferred between different locations of the same company located within Romanian national territory etc.

The entity liable to report the transport of the goods and obtain the UIT code is to be established depending on the transaction performed, thus a thorough analysis of each case is required to properly determine the obligations of each party involved.

The legislation also provides for several exceptions from reporting under the RO e-Transport System:

• the transport of goods intended for diplomatic missions and consular offices, as well as international organizations, NATO member states' armed forces, the European Union, member states of the Partnership for Peace, or states with which Romania has concluded agreements in the field, or as a result of executing classified contracts according to the law or executing public procurement contracts that require the imposition of special security measures according to legal provisions to protect essential state security interests;
• the transport of excise goods circulating under excise suspension arrangements or with excise paid in the Member State of dispatch, by using the systems for monitoring the movement of excise goods (EMCS), for issuing the electronic administrative document (e-DA) or for issuing the simplified electronic administrative document (e-DAS);
• the transport of goods by postal service providers in postal parcels, under certain conditions.

As part of the RO e-Transport system, the road transport operator is required to equip its transport vehicles with telecommunication terminal devices that use satellite positioning and data transmission technologies to ensure the provision of real-time positioning data for the transport vehicle for the entire duration of the shipment of goods subject to monitoring through the RO e-Transport System (these provisions do not apply if the positioning data of the transport vehicle is already transmitted by its own devices).

From the beginning of November 2024, the application of penalties was postponed until 31 March 2025 in case of: i) road transport operators non-complying with the above mentioned requirements, and with the obligation of transmitting the UIT code to the driver and ii) the offences for international road transport of non high-fiscal risk goods, committed by authorized economic operators (AEO) according to Article 38 of Regulation (EU) 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 October 2013 laying down the Union Customs Code.

Since September-October 2024, the following are also applicable:

• part of the information reported in the RO e-Transport system may be updated after the expiration of the code, but only for a limited period;
• the incremental penalties system was introduced for certain offences (the penalties are applied considering the number of offences and the period in which they were committed);
• the complementary penalty of confiscation of the value of the goods for failure to declare information in RO e-Transport system will no longer apply where verifications are performed after the road transport of goods has been completed and the goods in question have been recorded in the supporting documents for the accounting entries or in users’ accounts, as the case may be, for the period to which the respective operations refer;
• a digital register of penalties imposed will be set up, to which the competent authorities will have access.