Tax guides for PFAs

Once your PFA is registered and you have a tax ID (CUI), set things up properly from day one:

• An SPV account on anaf.ro. This is where you get ANAF notices, file the annual return and upload invoices to e-Factura. Do it in the first days.
• The income and expense register. Log every payment you receive and every expense with a supporting document. Your annual return figures come from it.
• A bank account for the business and, ideally, a sub-account where you move the monthly tax amount.
• Invoicing software that produces the e-Factura XML, if you work with Romanian clients.
• The big deadline: May 25, for the previous year's income.

How much to set aside? It depends on income and expenses – often 20% to 40% of what you earn. Don't guess: calculate it.

CASS is the 10% contribution that gives you access to public healthcare. As a PFA in the real system you calculate it on your annual net income (income minus deductible expenses) and pay it through the annual return, by May 25 of the following year.

• Minimum: if you're not insured from another source, the base is at least 6 minimum wages (24,300 lei for 2026 income), i.e. at least 2,430 lei, even if you earned less.
• If you're an employee or retired: no minimum – you pay 10% of the net income you actually made.
• Cap: above 72 minimum wages (291,600 lei) you pay nothing more. For 2025 income the cap was 60 minimum wages.
• CASS lowers your income tax: it's subtracted from the income tax base, so each leu of CASS cuts income tax by 0.10 lei.

Example: net income of 60,000 lei → CASS of 6,000 lei.

CAS (the pension contribution) is 25%, applied not to all your income but to a fixed base that depends on your annual net income:

• Below 12 minimum wages (48,600 lei for 2026): not mandatory. You can choose to pay on 12 minimum wages to build pension history.
• Between 12 and 24 minimum wages: base 48,600 lei → CAS 12,150 lei.
• Above 24 minimum wages (97,200 lei): base 97,200 lei → CAS 24,300 lei, however high your income.

Watch the steps: at 48,000 lei net you owe no CAS; at 49,000 lei you owe 12,150 lei. Near a step, a timely deductible expense can change the bill a lot.

CAS is subtracted from the income tax base and paid through the annual return by May 25 of the following year.

An expense is deductible if it's made for the business, paid and backed by a supporting document (an invoice or a receipt with your tax ID). Every deductible expense lowers your net income – and with it, CASS and income tax.

• Usually fully deductible: software subscriptions and hosting, internet and phone used for work, office or coworking rent, accounting, courses related to your work, bank and platform fees (Upwork, Stripe, PayPal).
• Expensive equipment: a laptop or anything else you use for more than a year that costs at least 5,000 lei per item (2,500 lei for items bought up to 2025) is a fixed asset (art. 28 of the Fiscal Code) and is deducted through depreciation over its useful life – not all in the year you bought it. Depreciation starts the month after you put it into use.
• Partly: a car you also use privately (usually 50% of fuel, repairs, insurance), client entertainment (capped at 2% of the base), home utilities if your registered office is at home (in proportion to the space used).
• Not at all: personal spending, fines, income tax. CAS and CASS aren't expenses, but they are subtracted from the income tax base.

How much do you save? 1,000 lei of deductible expenses lowers your taxes by up to ~190 lei (10% CASS + 10% income tax on the rest). Near a CAS step, the effect can be much bigger.

For borderline cases (cars, a home office, expensive equipment), ask an accountant.

The annual return (form 212) is where you declare last year's income and calculate CAS, CASS and income tax. The deadline is May 25 (the next working day if it falls on a weekend or holiday), for both filing and payment.

• How to file: online through SPV (anaf.ro), using the web form or the smart PDF.
• What you need: total income and total deductible expenses from your register and, if relevant, proof you were insured as an employee.
• Payment: through SPV, Ghiseul.ro or your bank, into the single tax account. You can pay early.
• Paying late costs 0.02% interest + a 0.01% penalty per day.

The free ClarFisc calculator shows the figures you need; in ClarFisc Pro they come straight from your register, with the form's steps one by one.

Special cases (foreign income taxed abroad, several income sources, corrected returns) are worth checking with an accountant.

RO e-Factura is ANAF's system for sending invoices issued in Romania electronically, as XML files.

• Invoices to Romanian companies (B2B): uploaded within 5 working days of issue. An invoice that isn't sent can be fined.
• Invoices to Romanian individuals (B2C): are reported in the system too.
• Clients abroad: invoices to them are outside RO e-Factura – send them to the client directly.
• How to send: from SPV or from software that generates the XML in ANAF's format.

Tip: after uploading, check in SPV that the invoice shows as validated. Rejected means not sent.

e-Factura rules have changed often; for special cases (self-billing, corrective invoices) check with an accountant.

A PFA becomes VAT-registered (art. 316 of the Fiscal Code) when its turnover goes over 395,000 lei in a year, or when it chooses to register voluntarily.

• When: since 2025, the normal VAT regime applies from the very transaction that crosses the threshold. You apply for registration no later than that day – the old "by the 10th of the following month" rule is gone. If you're late, registration is backdated to the date you crossed it.
• How you invoice: Romanian clients get 21% VAT added (11% only where the law allows it). EU companies are invoiced without VAT, under reverse charge, and listed in D390. Your VAT number (RO + tax ID) goes on every invoice.
• What you deduct: the VAT on invoices from Romanian suppliers, for business purchases. For a car you also use privately, 50% is deductible. Services bought abroad (Google, Meta, AWS) go through reverse charge: VAT is charged and deducted in the same return, and D301 is no longer needed.
• D300 (the VAT return): filed for every period, even with no transactions, by the 25th of the following month. The period is the quarter if last year's turnover was under 100,000 EUR, otherwise the month. The difference between output and input VAT is paid by the same date; a negative balance is carried forward or claimed as a refund.
• D394: the informative return listing invoices issued and received in Romania, for the same period, by the 30th of the following month.
• The annual return: VAT you collect isn't income and VAT you deduct isn't an expense. D212 uses your income and expenses without VAT.

Cash-accounting VAT (art. 282) helps if clients pay late: the VAT on your invoices is due only when you're paid, and the invoices say "TVA la încasare".

Tip: the VAT you collect isn't yours. Set it aside every time you're paid, and compare your return with ANAF's pre-filled one (RO e-TVA) in SPV before filing.

VAT refunds, selling goods, imports and corrected returns are worth doing with an accountant.

Neither is "better" in general – it depends on your income, expenses and how quickly you need the money.

• PFA (real system): 10% tax on net + CAS (in steps) + 10% CASS (capped). Simple records, the money is yours right away. But you're liable with your personal assets.
• Micro-SRL (2026): 1% tax on revenue up to 100,000 EUR, but you need at least one employee and an accountant (typically a few thousand lei a year), and profit comes out as dividends with 16% tax and tiered CASS. Liability is limited to the company.
• Above the micro ceiling (~509,850 lei), the company pays 16% tax on profit.

In short: at low and medium income a PFA is usually simpler and similar in money; at high income with low expenses a micro-SRL can leave more. The free comparison calculates the difference for your numbers.

Changing your legal form has its own costs and deadlines – discuss it with an accountant first.