What ANAF does when the return is missing
The Romanian VAT return (form 300, usually called the D300) is due on the 25th of the month after the tax period. If the deadline passes without a return, ANAF no longer waits for a tax audit to set the amount. Since 3 September 2026, when ANAF Order 1022/2026 was published in Official Gazette 745, there is a standard procedure built on data ANAF already holds: the RO e-TVA pre-filled return, the invoices in RO e-Factura and the receipts from electronic cash registers.
The legal basis is article 107 of the Tax Procedure Code. Paragraph (1) allows the tax authority to assess the tax ex officio by an assessment decision when a return is not filed, but not earlier than 15 days after the taxpayer has been notified. The order sets out the steps, the forms and, above all, the formula.
The procedure applies from the July 2024 return onwards (article 6 of the order). A return missed in 2024 or 2025 can therefore receive a decision now. It does not apply to periods already covered by a tax audit or a documentary review, or to taxpayers declared inactive (point 4 of the procedure).
How ANAF calculates the amount
Point 19 of the procedure has four steps:
- ANAF takes total output VAT from the sources it has.
- It takes total input VAT from the same sources.
- It reduces input VAT by 50%.
- It calculates the difference between output VAT and the reduced input VAT.
In short: ex officio VAT = output VAT − 50% × input VAT. If the result is negative or below 20 lei, ANAF issues no decision (point 22). Above 20 lei, it issues the ex officio assessment decision on form 192. The amount is set subject to later verification (point 5), so an audit can change it afterwards in either direction.
The 50% cut has nothing to do with how much VAT the company could actually deduct. It works as the price of not filing: the more purchases with VAT a company has, the further the decision moves away from what it really owes.
Worked example: what the cut costs
A Bucharest company filing monthly does not file its return for August 2026. The deadline was Friday, 25 September 2026. In e-Factura and in the pre-filled return, ANAF sees:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Output VAT on invoices issued in August | 42,000 lei |
| Input VAT on invoices received in August | 30,000 lei |
| Actual VAT payable (42,000 − 30,000) | 12,000 lei |
| Input VAT reduced by 50% | 15,000 lei |
| VAT in the ex officio decision (42,000 − 15,000) | 27,000 lei |
The decision asks for 15,000 lei more than the company owes: exactly the half of input VAT that ANAF set aside. Payment is due under article 156: by the 5th of the next month if the decision is communicated between the 1st and the 15th, or by the 20th if it is communicated between the 16th and the end of the month.
Suppose the company sorts itself out and files the return on 24 December 2026, 90 days after the deadline but within 60 days of the decision. The decision is cancelled, and the company owes the actual 12,000 lei plus late-payment charges for the 90 days:
- interest: 12,000 × 0.02% × 90 = 216 lei (article 174);
- late-payment penalty: 12,000 × 0.01% × 90 = 108 lei (article 176);
- the fine for not filing: 500 to 1,000 lei for a small company (article 336(2)(d)), 1,000 to 5,000 lei for medium and large taxpayers.
The charges run on the actual VAT, not on the amount in the decision. The ANAF interest and penalty calculator works out the figures for your own dates.
If the company lets the 60 days pass, a return filed afterwards is no longer processed. The 27,000 lei in the decision stand, and the 15,000 lei difference can only be recovered through an appeal filed in time.
The timeline, from the return deadline to day 60
| When | What happens | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| 25th of the month after the period | Deadline for the D300 | article 323, Tax Code |
| At most 2 working days after the deadline | ANAF lists the taxable persons that did not file (list L0) | point 7 of the procedure |
| The notice is communicated | Non-filing notice, with the right to be heard; the 15 days start here | article 107(1)–(2), Tax Procedure Code |
| If nobody attends the hearing | A second invitation is sent | article 9, Tax Procedure Code |
| After the 15 days | ANAF calculates the amount and issues the decision on form 192 | points 19–23 of the procedure |
| Day 0: the decision is communicated | The decision is enforceable; payment by the 5th or 20th of the next month | article 156(2)(d), Tax Procedure Code |
| Day 45 | Last day to appeal | article 270(1), Tax Procedure Code |
| Day 60 | Last day on which filing the return cancels the decision | article 107(5), point 27 |
| After day 60 | The return is not processed; the decision stands | article 107(5), loss of the right |
For companies enrolled in the Virtual Private Space (SPV), ANAF’s online mailbox, the notice and the decision are communicated through the SPV (point 6 of the procedure). The deadlines run from communication, whether or not anyone opens the message.
File the return or appeal?
In most cases, file the return, as early as possible. The decision is cancelled on the filing date with no appeal procedure, and ANAF issues a cancellation decision on form 193. There is no need to wait for the decision: a return filed after the notice but before the decision stops the procedure at the start.
An appeal, within 45 days of communication, makes sense in a few situations:
- the return cannot be rebuilt in time, for example because the records are missing or held by a former accountant who will not hand them over;
- ANAF included invoices that are not the company’s or that were cancelled;
- the period was outside the procedure: it had already been audited or reviewed, or the company was inactive.
Do not count on an appeal as a fallback after the 60 days: its deadline ends first. A company that misses both day 45 and day 60 pays the amount in the decision.
If you have already received a decision and are unsure which route to take, we review it together with the SPV data. Appeals and audits are handled under our tax audit and appeals service.
Foreign companies registered for VAT in Romania
The procedure makes no exception for non-residents. Every person registered for VAT that had to file the D300 is covered, whether registered directly, through a fiscal representative or through a fixed establishment. What differs is what ANAF can see, because the formula only uses data from the electronic systems.
A distributor with B2B sales in Romania. A German company ships goods from its own warehouse in Germany and sells them to Romanian retailers. In September it invoices 300,000 lei plus 21% VAT, so 63,000 lei of output VAT, reported through e-Factura. The transfer of its goods from Germany is an intra-EU acquisition under the reverse charge: the VAT is charged and deducted in the same return and does not appear in e-Factura. Its local purchases are the warehouse rent and transport, 20,000 lei plus 4,200 lei of VAT.
Actual VAT payable is 63,000 − 4,200 = 58,800 lei. The ex officio amount is 63,000 − 2,100 = 60,900 lei. The gap is small because the company has little visible input VAT. The real exposure is elsewhere: the company owes almost all of its output VAT anyway, and interest runs from the return deadline, not from the date of the decision.
A B2C seller with stock in a Romanian warehouse. A Polish company sells online to Romanian consumers from stock held here. Sales to private individuals do not go through e-Factura for a non-resident without a fixed establishment, and online sales paid by bank transfer or card online do not usually go through a cash register. ANAF sees little or no output VAT, the result falls below 20 lei and no decision is issued. That does not make the obligation go away. After 6 months without a return (2 quarters for quarterly filers), article 316(11)(d) of the Tax Code leads to cancellation of the VAT number, and the VAT due is left to be assessed in an audit, with charges from every missed deadline.
An exporter or intra-EU supplier. A foreign company buys goods from Romanian suppliers and ships them to other member states. It has input VAT and almost no output VAT, so the result is negative and no decision is issued. A VAT refund, however, can only be claimed through the return, and without one the money stays with the budget.
For a non-resident, the notice arrives in the SPV used for the Romanian VAT number, which is often run by the fiscal representative or a local accountant. If the company has changed providers and nobody reads that mailbox any more, the 15, 45 and 60 days run without anyone at the company knowing. When we take on a non-resident client, the SPV is the first thing we check, before the first return.
What to check if you receive a notice
- The period in the notice: was the return really not filed, or was it rejected at validation and never reached ANAF?
- The RO e-TVA pre-filled return for that period. ANAF starts from it, and differences from your records need an explanation anyway.
- Invoices issued and received in e-Factura. An invoice from a supplier that was never booked appears at ANAF as input VAT but is missing from your records.
- The complete return, filed before the 15 days expire. That way no decision is issued.
Monthly filing, with reconciliation against e-TVA and e-Factura before the deadline, is described on our VAT return (D300) page. For a foreign company that is only now registering, the obligation to file starts with the first period after VAT registration, even with no transactions.
