Romanian VAT refunds from 2026: the 14 risk triggers that put the audit first

What changed on 28 September 2026

Until now, the “risk of an undue refund” had three definitions in the law, all tied to facts already established: official documents received from other institutions, facts with criminal elements found during a control, and differences above 10% and at least 50,000 lei set in a subsequent audit (article 169(4)(a)–(c) of the Tax Procedure Code). Emergency Ordinance 38/2026 added letter (d): “other situations established by order of the ANAF president”. The order came on 21 September 2026, ANAF Order 1123/2026, published in Official Gazette 823 of 28 September 2026.

The order amends the procedure for settling negative VAT returns with a refund option (ANAF Order 352/2022) and gives it a new annex 6 with 14 situations, checked on every return that asks for a refund. No prior finding is needed any more: the unit that reviews the return looks into the databases ANAF already holds (e-Factura, e-Case electronic cash registers, the tax record, the register of inactive taxpayers, the returns filed) and ticks the boxes.

It applies from day one: to the returns for August 2026 and the third quarter of 2026, and to every return that was pending on 28 September, except those already sent to the audit unit (article III of the order). The September return, due by 26 October, already goes through the new sieve.

How a return with a refund option is settled

The basic rule has not changed. Under article 169(1) of the Tax Procedure Code, the VAT claimed is refunded by the tax authority “with the tax audit carried out afterwards”. ANAF performs a desk review, issues the refund decision subject to subsequent verification, pays or offsets, and an audit may follow later if the risk analysis calls for it (paragraph (8)).

The exception is the anticipated tax audit: the money comes after the control. The cases are in paragraph (2) for large and medium taxpayers and in paragraph (3) for everyone else:

The 14 new situations belong in the second row. They do not create a new anticipated-audit case; they define what “risk” means.

Three things to keep in mind before ticking the box:

• A negative balance of 5,000 lei or less cannot be claimed; it is carried forward to the next return (article 303(7) of the Tax Code).
• A return filed late is no longer treated as a refund claim: the amount is carried into the next period’s return (article 169(5) of the Tax Procedure Code), and ANAF notifies you to carry it forward (point 33(2^1) of the procedure).
• The deadline for settling the claim is 45 days from filing (article 77(1)). If an audit is needed, it becomes at most 90 days, and ANAF must tell you within 5 days of completing the risk analysis (paragraph (5)). Periods in which the audit is suspended do not count (point 68(1^1)).

The September order also lengthened the preliminary analysis stage: from 5 to 15 working days after filing (point 39(2)), because the unit now has 14 extra checks to run.

The 14 situations, grouped

The annex uses the word “significant” several times without numeric thresholds. The thresholds stay with the reviewing unit, and the reasoned report that enters you in the special database has to set out the analysis behind the classification (point 10(d) of the procedure). The groups below are ours; the numbering is the annex’s.

A. The people behind the company (situations 1–4)

B. The behaviour of the return (situations 5–7)

C. The company’s status and filing discipline (situations 8–11)

D. What ANAF sees in e-Factura and e-Case (situations 12–13)

For situations 12 and 13 the mechanism is the one behind the pre-filled RO e-TVA return: ANAF compares your return with its own data. Differences that have an explanation (cash accounting, credit notes, intra-EU acquisitions) are not a problem, but you must be able to show them on the spot.

E. Your suppliers (situation 14)

Situation 14 is ticked if at least one supplier accounting for “a significant share” of the input VAT in the return is in any of 11 states:

• a) appears in the special database on the risk of undue refunds;
• b) appears in the database of persons in voluntary liquidation or insolvency;
• c) has criminal offences recorded in the tax record;
• d) has not filed the D300, D394, D390 or D406 for the period the claimed amount comes from;
• e) has VAT in e-Factura and e-Case significantly higher than the output VAT it declared (situation 12, applied to the supplier);
• f) is unable to pay, in insolvency, reorganisation, bankruptcy or insolvency-prevention proceedings;
• g) has outstanding VAT debts;
• h) is in the register of inactive taxpayers or in the register of persons whose VAT registration was cancelled;
• i) was registered or re-registered for VAT in the last 6 months and uses a tax period other than the calendar month;
• j) is an affiliated person of the company claiming the refund;
• k) was set up less than 6 months before the return under review.

This is where most of the risk moves. You are not liable for your supplier’s filings, but your refund depends on them. Of the 11 states, a few are visible publicly: the cancelled VAT number and tax inactivity (letter h), insolvency (letter f) and, within the limits of ANAF’s lists, tax arrears (letter g). You can check them for each major supplier in our Romanian company check by tax ID: VAT status at a chosen date, inactivity, insolvency, financial statements. Unfiled returns (letter d) and presence in the special databases (letters a and b) are not public. For those, concentration is what matters: the more a single supplier weighs in your input VAT, the more your refund depends on their discipline.

Letter j) deserves a sentence of its own. If the German parent invoices its Romanian subsidiary for services with Romanian VAT, through a fixed establishment or its own registration, and those invoices make up a significant share of the input VAT, situation 14 is ticked on every return. It is not an accusation; it is a signal that leads to an anticipated audit.

What happens when a situation is ticked

1. The reviewing unit analyses the return and finds the situation (point 50(1) for large and medium taxpayers, point 60(1) for the rest).
2. It draws up a reasoned report, approved by the head of the unit, and enters the company in the special database on the risk of undue refunds (point 8(2), point 10(d)).
3. The return is settled after an anticipated tax audit (points 50(3) and 60(3)). Every day the unit sends the audit department a schedule of the returns classified that way (point 63).
4. If the refund decision had already been issued but the return was still “pending” (until the first offset or repayment, point 35), the decision is annulled under article 94(2) of the Tax Procedure Code (point 21(4)). You receive a “Decision annulling the VAT refund decision”, which can be appealed within 45 days (article 270). If you are enrolled in the SPV, the documents arrive there (point 43(3)).
5. The anticipated audit covers only the periods that generated the balance claimed (article 169(9)). It extends to other periods only if signs of irregularities appear (paragraph (10)).
6. At the next return with a refund option, the unit checks whether you are still in any of the situations and proposes keeping you in or removing you from the database (point 15^1). Removal happens when you no longer fall under any situation in the annex (point 16(2)(d)).

Entry in the database is not a penalty and is not communicated separately. You learn about it from how long the settlement takes and from the audit notice.

Worked example: a supplier that does not file its VAT return

A company in Cluj makes packaging and exports it. Its tax period is the month. In the return for August 2026, filed on 25 September:

The main cardboard supplier, with invoices of 420,000 lei plus VAT of 88,200 lei, accounts for 70% of the input VAT. In September this supplier did not file its D300 for July, nor the one for August. ANAF sees this in its own records; the company in Cluj does not.

Until 28 September 2026 the company’s return would have been settled after a desk review, with a possible audit later. Now situation 14(d) is ticked. The result:

• the company enters the special database and the return goes to an anticipated tax audit for August 2026;
• the settlement deadline moves from 45 to at most 90 days: the money can arrive at the earliest around 24 December 2026, not on 9 November;
• if the company finances the wait from a credit line at 9% a year, the extra 45 days cost 126,000 × 9% × 45 / 365 = 1,398 lei;
• if ANAF exceeds the 90 days, the company can claim interest of 0.02% per day (article 182): 126,000 × 0.02% = 25.20 lei per day, from day 91. Interest is granted only on request.

What the Cluj company could have done before 25 September: check the supplier in the public registers (valid VAT number, not inactive, no insolvency), require its major suppliers by contract to show proof that their VAT return was filed, or, if the cash was not urgent, carry the balance forward for a month and claim the refund once the supplier’s situation is clear. The refund option is not compulsory: a balance can be carried forward indefinitely.

The amount itself does not change. If the invoices are correct and the goods were delivered, the audit confirms the 126,000 lei. The cost of the risk is time.

Checklist before you tick the refund option

1. The balance is above 5,000 lei and the return is filed on time; otherwise the amount is carried forward anyway.
2. D394, D390 and D406 are filed for every period whose deadline has passed, including nil returns. Check the receipts, not your memory.
3. Output VAT in the return matches e-Factura and e-Case; the differences (cash accounting, credit notes, advances) are listed on a single document.
4. Domestic input VAT has a match in the invoices your suppliers transmitted in e-Factura. Invoices missing from the system are requested from the supplier before you file.
5. Suppliers that bring more than 20–25% of your input VAT have a valid VAT number, are not inactive and not insolvent; for affiliated suppliers or those set up less than 6 months ago, the transaction file is complete.
6. Adjustments and corrections in the period each have a written explanation and a supporting document.
7. The increase in the amount compared with previous returns has a demonstrable cause (export contract, investment invoice, stock).
8. The tax record of the company, its shareholders and its directors is clean; when a director changes, request it again.
9. The company is less than 6 months old or at its first return with a refund option: plan the cash flow on 90 days and prepare the audit file (contracts, invoices, proof of payment, transport documents) before filing.
10. If you change your mind: you can withdraw the refund claim by notification until the decision is communicated (article 303(8) of the Tax Code) and carry the balance into the next return.

A company that files negative returns every month can run checks 2 to 5 as a routine, on the day the return is reconciled. Our monthly routine is described on the VAT return (D300) page; tax audits and appeals are handled separately, including the appeal against the annulment decision.

Foreign companies registered for VAT in Romania

The procedure makes no exception for non-residents and adds one extra check. When the return is filed through a fiscal representative, point 37^1 of the procedure requires the article 169 conditions to be checked “both for the taxable person not established in Romania and for the appointed fiscal representative”. A representative with its own problems in the tax record or in the special databases drags all its clients along.

The situations that matter most often for a foreign company:

The first return with a refund option. An Italian company registered directly for VAT in Romania in June 2026 for a distribution warehouse claims a refund of the VAT on local purchases from its first quarter of activity. Unless it is classified as a large or medium taxpayer, the return goes to an anticipated audit simply because it is the first (article 169(3)(d)). Situation 11 (company set up less than 6 months ago) does not apply to an Italian company that has existed since 2015; but if the entity was set up specifically for Romania, that one is ticked too. The new definition in point 58(3) says that the first return after a re-registration, or after a withdrawal of the refund option, also counts as the “first return”.

Unfiled D390 and D406 (situation 8). Non-residents file the D390 for intra-EU supplies and acquisitions and the D406 SAF-T in the reduced structure; the D394 only if they have transactions in Romania with persons registered for VAT. The SAF-T grace period spares you the fine; it does not mean the return is not expected: on the date of the return with a refund option, a D406 whose deadline has passed and which was not filed can tick situation 8.

Differences against e-Factura (situations 12 and 13). Since 1 January 2026, Romanian suppliers transmit in RO e-Factura the invoices they issue to non-residents registered for VAT (our article on e-Factura for non-resident companies has the legal basis). If the foreign company deducts VAT on invoices received by e-mail that the supplier never transmitted in the system, situation 13 is ticked. On the output side, a non-resident without a fixed establishment reports only B2B invoices in e-Factura; B2C sales do not appear in the system, so the output VAT in the return is usually higher, not lower, than what ANAF sees, and situation 12 is not ticked.

The affiliated supplier (situation 14(j)). Groups that invoice each other for services with Romanian VAT fall under situation 14 systematically. The intra-group transaction file, with the price and the substance of the service, has to be ready before the first return with a refund option.

VAT number cancelled while the return is pending. New point 82^1 answers an old problem: if the foreign company loses its VAT number while a return with a refund option is pending, the negative amount can be repaid under the general repayment procedure (Finance Ministry Order 1899/2004), provided the company declares that it has ceased its economic activity in Romania. Until now the amount stayed blocked until a possible re-registration.

For foreign companies the best protection is the same as for Romanian ones: returns filed up to date, a reconciliation against e-Factura before the return, and an audit file that is prepared rather than improvised. A company that is only now registering finds the monthly obligations in our guide to VAT in Romania for foreign companies.

What stays the same, and what comes next

A refund with a subsequent audit remains the rule, the amount refunded is not reduced by a risk classification, and interest for delay is still due after the 45- or 90-day deadline. What changed is that ANAF may now decide on an anticipated audit from its desk, from its own databases, before asking you anything.

The “significant” thresholds will take shape in practice, through the units’ reports and, if they are abused, through appeals. If you have received an audit notice for a return with a refund option, or a decision annulling a refund, we look together at which of the 14 situations ANAF has put you in and which documents close the audit quickly. If you have not filed the return yet, the checklist above is the place to start.