Romania personal tax guide

When Romania taxes your worldwide income

Romania uses worldwide taxation for ordinary resident individuals. Fiscal Code article 7 looks beyond nationality: Romanian domicile, the centre of vital interests and presence exceeding 183 days in any consecutive 12-month period ending in the calendar year are relevant tests. Your family home, economic relationships and actual life can matter before a day-count threshold is reached. An immigration card, company registration or Romanian bank account does not answer the treaty-residence question by itself.

Article 59 gives distinct start rules. Becoming resident through the centre of vital interests can bring worldwide taxation from the date that centre is declared to be in Romania; meeting the presence test can bring taxation from the first arrival day. Treaty residence must be evidenced where a treaty changes the domestic result. Do not assume the first 183 days are automatically outside Romanian tax.

The arrival questionnaire is generally due within 30 days after completing the 183-day period. Prepare passport/travel history, housing evidence, family and employment facts and a foreign residence certificate with any required translation. ANAF evaluates the facts and notifies the result. Keep the notification with the tax file, and update material changes rather than relying indefinitely on a form submitted at arrival.

The rate depends on what you earn

The ordinary national income-tax rate is 10% on the relevant taxable base, not 10% of every receipt. Salary contributions and eligible deductions affect employment income; a business deducts only qualifying costs under its applicable method. Investment categories have express exceptions that changed materially in 2026. A headline 10% comparison is therefore incomplete for an owner who draws dividends or sells investments.

What the salary taxes actually mean

For an ordinary employee subject to Romanian insurance, CAS pension contribution is 25% of the contribution base, CASS health contribution 10%, and income tax 10% of the residual taxable salary after permitted deductions. Ordinary salary contributions do not have the investment-income annual ceiling. Benefits, sickness payments, exemptions, minimum-base provisions and international social-security coverage can change the calculation.

A deliberately simple monthly illustration uses RON 10,000 cash gross salary, no personal deductions, no exempt benefits and ordinary Romanian insurance. Employee CAS is 2,500, CASS 1,000 and income tax 650, leaving 5,850. Standard employer CAM is 225, so salary plus CAM is 10,225. This is arithmetic for that stated case, not a payroll calculator or a complete employer budget; occupational additions, paid leave, benefits and administration remain separate.

Broker choice, dividends and losses

The qualifying-intermediary regime is defined in article 96¹: it covers Romanian-resident intermediaries and specified nonresidents with a Romanian permanent establishment acting as intermediary. A familiar app or a Romanian-language website is not proof of that status. Obtain written confirmation of the legal intermediary and the withholding treatment before comparing 3%/6% with 16%.

Final withholding on each profitable sale is materially different from a tax on the overall portfolio result. For example, RON 20,000 of qualifying long-held gains and RON 15,000 of separate losses still produce 600 of 3% tax on the gains under this regime; the losses are final and do not reduce that withholding. Outside it, the annual net-gain rules, source allocation and eligible loss carryovers must be examined separately. Do not transfer this illustration to derivatives, employment shares or foreign-tax-credit calculations without checking the category.

Dividends distributed from 1 January 2026 attract 16%; the distribution date and the statutory transition for 2025 interim dividends matter. Domestic payers generally withhold; foreign dividends may require the individual’s declaration and evidence of foreign tax. Receiving a dividend net of withholding does not settle the separate health-contribution test.

Acquisition records before you move

For ordinary cash-purchased securities, article 94 measures gain by sale proceeds less fiscal acquisition value and qualifying transaction costs; paragraph 4 identifies purchase price for securities. This supports a historical-cost classification for that narrowly defined asset. It is not a verified general immigration step-up or a conclusion about every foreign asset.

Retain original contract notes, corporate-action history, fees and currency records before a broker changes your residence. A move-date valuation is useful evidence but must not simply replace purchase cost. Gifts, inheritances, stock options, reorganisations, trusts, crypto and assets transferred into a business can have different basis rules. This guide has not verified those arrival cases or all interactions with a departure-country exit charge; they require a transaction-specific review.

Health contributions on investments and self-employment

CASS is not just a payroll deduction. For the investment/rental/other categories grouped by article 170(2)–(4), the aggregate income test uses 6,12 and 24 minimum salaries and produces a contribution on the corresponding band base. Certain income is counted net of withholding, including the specified interest/dividend receipts; do not add gross account deposits indiscriminately. Salary insurance does not automatically remove every investment-income obligation.

Self-employed activity follows a different rule: 2026 CASS generally uses the relevant actual net-income base subject to a 72-minimum-salary maximum, with minimum-base top-ups and exceptions needing separate analysis. The 72-salary cap is not the 24-salary investment ceiling and neither limits ordinary salary CASS. CAS for eligible independent/IP activity has 12/24-minimum-salary floor tests, a chosen base and status exceptions; these are not universal maximum pension contributions.

The national monthly minimum wage is 4,050 in January–June 2026 and 4,325 from 1 July. A midyear minimum-wage change must not be mechanically inserted into every annual threshold: the statute fixes the reference date for each contribution. The shared records preserve the salary rates and the 72/6/12/24 multipliers, while a full annual multi-income contribution calculation is not offered here.

Property, rental activity and pensions

Private real-estate disposal is not the same as securities capital gains. Article 111 generally charges the transfer value at 3% for property held up to three years and 1% after three years, subject to exemptions and the transaction’s legal treatment. A recurring development or trading business can have a different income and VAT result. Obtain the notary’s calculation and check local building/land liabilities independently.

For ordinary private letting, the taxable-income rules and payer withholding differ from operating tourist accommodation. From 2026, short-term letting of 1–7 rooms in personal homes uses the specified 30% expense allowance; more than 7 rooms enters independent-activity treatment. This is a room-count/category rule, not permission to operate accommodation without local approvals.

Pensions require a separate review of the current domestic threshold, health contribution, source country and the treaty’s private/government-service pension article. This guide does not assign a universal net pension rate or extrapolate the salary example to pensions. Keep pension award documents and proof of tax paid abroad.

Foreign tax relief and the annual file

Article 131 provides treaty-based credit or exemption treatment where the conditions are met. A credit is constrained by the Romanian tax attributable to the relevant foreign income; it is not a refund of any amount collected overseas. Residence certificates, payer statements and evidence that foreign tax was actually paid are essential. Exempt treaty income may still have a declaration requirement.

The calendar year is the normal individual income-tax period. The ordinary annual declaration deadline under article 122 is 25 May of the following year, with non-working-day rules and later amendments checked in the filing calendar. Domestic final withholding, foreign income, investment CASS and changes of residence must be reconciled rather than assuming every taxpayer files exactly the same return. Use the ANAF portal and retain submission/payment acknowledgements.

VAT and the cost of everyday spending

Romania’s standard VAT rate is 21%, with an 11% reduced rate for specifically listed supplies, from 1 August 2025. For a household, VAT belongs in the spending budget alongside income tax and social contributions. For a business, whether VAT is charged or recoverable depends on the supply, customer, registration and deduction rules. Personal residence or a residence permit does not create a general VAT exemption.

The domestic small-business exemption threshold is RON 395,000. Registration and normal taxation can begin with the transaction that crosses it; cross-border obligations can arise earlier. A remote worker who also invoices clients should review this separately from salary tax. The transitional 9% housing provision ended on 31 July 2026 and is not a current option for a new purchase.

Foreign businesses and departure planning

A Romanian-resident owner’s foreign company needs its own review. Article 40⁵ CFC attribution is an identified corporate-profit-tax regime; this research does not establish a comprehensive individual CFC absence. Separately, managing the foreign entity from Romania may create Romanian corporate residence or a permanent establishment even if profits remain in an overseas account.

Before leaving, test the departure date, destination treaty and the Romanian-domicile rule. Article 59(7) can continue worldwide taxation for the move year and three following calendar years when a Romanian-resident individual domiciled in Romania changes residence to a non-treaty state. That is continued residence taxation, not a deemed-sale capital-gains exit tax. A comprehensive personal exit-tax absence has not been verified.