What Romanian payroll actually consists of
For an employer, Romanian payroll is not one obligation but three, and they run on different clocks.
Before the first working day, the individual employment contract has to exist in writing, in Romanian, and be registered in Revisal — the general register of employees, maintained electronically and transmitted to the labour inspectorate. Registration is not a formality that can be caught up later: a person found working without a registered contract is undeclared work.
Every month, the payroll is calculated, payslips are issued, income tax and contributions are withheld, and the D112 return is filed to ANAF by the 25th of the following month, with payment on the same date.
Continuously, the employer maintains the personnel file, the record of working time, the annual leave record and the documentation behind every change to a contract. This is the part that no one thinks about until the labour inspectorate arrives.
The framework is the Labour Code (Law 53/2003) for the employment relationship and the Fiscal Code (Law 227/2015) for tax and contributions. The Labour Code is on legislatie.just.ro; the Fiscal Code is published by ANAF.
Who has to run Romanian payroll
| Employer | Romanian payroll obligations |
|---|---|
| Romanian SRL with employees, whoever owns it | Full: contracts, Revisal, D112, contributions |
| Romanian subsidiary of a foreign group | Full, identical to any Romanian company |
| Foreign company registered as an employer in Romania without a local entity | Payroll obligations for the staff working in Romania |
| Foreign company using an employer of record | The provider is the legal employer and carries the obligations |
| Romanian entity with directors but no employees | No payroll, but director remuneration has its own treatment |
The row that generates the most questions is the third. A foreign employer can, in defined circumstances, run Romanian payroll without incorporating, by registering for social security purposes here. Whether that is the right route depends on what the staff actually do in Romania and what that activity means for the company’s tax presence — a question to settle before the first hire, through tax advisory, rather than afterwards.
A Romanian company also has a payroll reason to exist even with one person: the micro-enterprise regime requires at least one employee, which makes the first employment contract a tax decision as much as an HR one. The comparison is set out in the guide on the micro-enterprise regime versus corporate tax.
Contributions: how the burden is split
Romanian salary costs are split between the employee, who bears most of the contribution burden through withholding, and the employer, who bears a smaller contribution on the same base.
- Withheld from the employee: income tax, the pension contribution and the health insurance contribution, all calculated on the gross salary and deducted from it.
- Borne by the employer: the labour insurance contribution, calculated on the same base, plus an additional pension contribution for jobs classified as difficult or particularly difficult working conditions.
Rates and any minimum bases are set in the Fiscal Code and are amended more often than any other part of Romanian tax law, including the treatment of specific benefits — meal vouchers, private health insurance, private pension contributions, remote work allowances. We confirm the rates and the exempt ceilings in force for the year concerned before the first calculation of each January, and we tell you when a change alters the cost of a package you have already agreed with staff.
- before day oneRevisalThe contract is registered at the latest on the working day before work starts. Not on the first day itself.
- during the monthTimesheets and changesDays worked, leave, medical certificates, bonuses, addenda to the contract.
- at month endPayslips and payrollWe calculate, check and send you the payroll register, the payslips and the payment orders.
- 25D112 and paymentThe return on contributions and income tax, together with the payment of the amounts it produces.
Occupational medicine, health and safety training and activity-specific authorisations stay outside the service, but inside the calendar we keep with you.
Deadlines
| Obligation | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Registration of a new employment contract in Revisal | Before the employee starts work |
| Registration of a change to an essential element of the contract | Within the deadline set by the register legislation, running from when the change takes effect |
| D112 return for the payroll month | The 25th of the following month, inclusive |
| Payment of income tax and contributions | The same date as the D112 |
| Termination recorded in Revisal | On the date the contract ends, per the register rules |
The 25th is a busy date: the D112 sits alongside the VAT return and the EC Sales List. The full monthly map is in the Romanian tax calendar.
Penalties
Two separate regimes apply, and the labour one is considerably harsher than the tax one.
Under the Labour Code, employing a person without a written individual employment contract registered in Revisal, or receiving a person to work outside the working time set in the contract, is sanctioned per person concerned, with amounts among the highest in Romanian administrative law and, above certain thresholds, with criminal liability. Late registration of a contract or of a change is sanctioned separately.
Under the Fiscal Code procedure, late filing of the D112 carries a fine, and unpaid tax and contributions attract interest and late-payment penalties per day of delay.
The distinction matters when you are deciding what to fix first. A late D112 is an expensive inconvenience. An unregistered contract is a category of finding that can stop an operation.
How we run payroll for you
Setup. We review or draft the employment contract templates in Romanian, register the company as an employer where that is needed, and take over the Revisal file with the existing employee history reconciled against the contracts.
Each month. You send the inputs — new joiners, leavers, changes, absences, variable pay, benefits. We calculate the payroll, issue payslips in English and Romanian, prepare the bank payment file, file the D112 through the Virtual Private Space with our qualified digital certificate, and return the ANAF receipt with a payroll cost summary by cost centre.
Per event. Contracts, addenda and terminations are drafted and registered in Revisal within the deadlines, without waiting for the month end.
Confidentiality. Salary data is handled separately from the rest of the accounting flow, with access limited to the people who need it.
Where we also keep the books, the payroll journal is posted directly and the salary liability accounts reconcile by construction — see accounting services in Romania for how the two functions fit together, and the annual financial statements for where the year ends.
The errors we see most often
- A contract registered after the first working day, usually because the start date moved forward and nobody told the payroll provider.
- Changes to salary or working time applied in payroll but never registered in Revisal, so the register and the contracts diverge quietly.
- Benefits treated as exempt on the basis of a ceiling that changed at the start of the year.
- Directors’ remuneration treated as salary, or the reverse, without checking the actual basis on which the person is engaged.
- Sick leave recovery never claimed from the health insurance fund, which is money left with the state.
- Termination documentation incomplete, which is where labour disputes usually start.
