At a glance
| You send | A recent extract from your home commercial register; the articles of association; proof of VAT registration in your country of establishment; evidence of the Romanian operations (a warehouse or fulfilment contract, a supply agreement, a construction contract); identification documents for the legal representative |
| We do | Confirm registration is actually needed; prepare the mandate or the fiscal representation agreement; guide translation and apostille; file form 015; answer ANAF |
| Timeline | About one week from submission of a complete file; assembling and legalising the file, which depends on the home country, is normally the slowest step |
| Fee | A fixed fee for the registration, then a fixed monthly fee for the filings — both in writing before you sign. |
| Travel | None for the registration and the filings. |
Not sure you need to register? Take the one-minute VAT check →
When VAT registration in Romania becomes compulsory
A company established abroad has to register for Romanian VAT when it carries out an operation that is taxable in Romania and that it cannot handle through a simplification or through a scheme it already uses. The obligation is created by the transaction, and it exists before the transaction — registration is a precondition, not a consequence.
Romania follows the common EU pattern here, but two national details make it stricter in practice than sellers expect. There is no small-business threshold for non-established companies. And the obligations that follow registration — SAF-T, the recapitulative statements and, where you deal in Romania with Romanian VAT-registered businesses, the domestic transactions report — start immediately, with no transitional period for a company still setting up its Romanian processes.
The operations that trigger registration
| Situation | Registration required in Romania |
|---|---|
| Stock held in a Romanian warehouse or fulfilment centre | Yes |
| Local supply of goods from Romanian stock to Romanian customers | Yes |
| Transfer of your own goods from another member state into Romania | Yes |
| Distance sales to Romanian consumers, outside the one-stop shop | Yes |
| Domestic supply of goods with installation or assembly | Yes |
| Construction or installation work on Romanian real estate | Yes, in most configurations |
| Intra-Community acquisitions of goods in Romania | Yes |
| Services taxable in Romania where the customer accounts for the VAT | Generally no, reverse charge applies |
| Distance sales declared entirely through the one-stop shop | No Romanian registration for those sales |
The line between the last three rows is where most of our advisory work sits. A B2B service supplied to a Romanian company is usually handled by the customer under the reverse charge, so no registration follows. The moment goods are physically stored in Romania, the reverse charge stops being available for the local sale, and registration becomes unavoidable. Marketplace fulfilment programmes that move stock across borders automatically are the most common way a seller becomes registrable without deciding to.
No threshold for non-established companies
Romania has a registration threshold for businesses established here. It does not apply to a company established abroad without a fixed establishment. The first taxable operation creates the obligation, whether it is worth ten thousand euro or two hundred.
This matters because the penalty structure is retroactive. Where a company should have registered and did not, ANAF assesses the VAT due from the date the obligation arose, together with late-payment interest and penalties running per day of delay, and the failure to register is itself sanctioned. Output VAT that was never charged to customers then comes out of the seller’s margin, because it is rarely commercially possible to reissue a year of invoices.
Direct registration or fiscal representative
The route depends on where the company is established.
| Where the company is established | Registration route | Fiscal representative |
|---|---|---|
| Another EU member state | Direct registration, form 015 | Optional |
| Outside the European Union | Through a Romanian fiscal representative | Mandatory |
| Company with a Romanian fixed establishment | Registration follows the establishment | Not applicable |
For EU companies, direct registration means the company is registered in its own name and deals with ANAF itself or through a mandated agent. The company keeps the liability; the agent handles the work.
For companies established outside the EU, article 316 paragraph (7) of the Fiscal Code requires a Romanian fiscal representative. Under point 89 of the methodological norms, a separate VAT code is attributed to the foreign company through the representative, and the representative invoices and files under it, files the VAT return for the mandated operations and pays the VAT due — ANAF addresses the representative for that VAT while the mandate lasts. That is the reason representatives are selective about whom they act for, and why the appointment involves more scrutiny than a straightforward mandate. The details are set out on the fiscal representation page.
- 01Check the obligationWhat you actually do in Romania decides whether registration is triggered. The check comes before the first supply.
- 02F015The fileForm 015, the company documents from your home state — translated and apostilled — and the power of attorney.
- 03Filing and reviewThe file goes to the competent tax office. Requests for clarification are what stretches the timeline in practice.
- 04The VAT numberAbout a week from a complete file. From the first transaction, D300, D394, SAF-T and e-Factura start running.
Registration happens before the first taxable transaction, not after it. Two questions tell you whether your company is caught.
Form 015 and the documents required
Registration of a taxpayer with no fixed establishment in Romania runs through form 015. The declaration identifies the company, describes the operations it carries out in Romania and names the person who will deal with the tax authority.
The supporting file normally contains:
- a recent extract from the commercial register of the home country;
- the articles of association;
- proof of VAT registration in the country of establishment;
- evidence of the Romanian operations — a warehouse or fulfilment contract, a supply agreement, a construction contract;
- the mandate or, for non-EU companies, the fiscal representation agreement;
- identification documents for the legal representative.
Documents are filed in authorised Romanian translation and, where required, apostilled or legalised. Assembling and legalising this file is normally the slowest step, and it is worth starting before the commercial decision is final. The consolidated Fiscal Code is published by ANAF.
Timeline and what ANAF looks at
About one week from submission of a complete file is the typical outcome. The tax authority reviews the substance of the application, not only its form: whether the described operations genuinely take place in Romania, whether the contracts support them, and whether the company is contactable through the person named in the file. Requests for additional information are common and are the main reason a registration takes longer than that.
Once the number is issued it appears in the Romanian VAT register and in VIES, which matters to your EU customers — they cannot apply the zero rate to a supply to you until your number is visible there.
What happens the day after registration
The VAT number arrives with a full reporting calendar attached:
- the VAT return, monthly or quarterly, depending on the period allocated at registration;
- the EC Sales List by the 25th, for intra-Community supplies and acquisitions;
- the domestic transactions report by the 30th, only for supplies or purchases in Romania with persons registered for Romanian VAT;
- Intrastat by the 15th to the National Institute of Statistics, once arrivals or dispatches pass one million lei on a flow;
- SAF-T, in the simplified version for non-residents, since 1 January 2025;
- RO e-Factura — without a fixed establishment you keep invoicing under your ordinary rules, but your B2B invoices are also transmitted to the system for reporting, and your Romanian suppliers deliver their invoices there.
Romanian VAT is charged at 21% standard and 11% reduced, both since 1 August 2025.
How we register you
The sequence is fixed and we run it in parallel wherever possible. We start with the analysis: which operations you actually carry out in Romania, whether they create a fixed establishment, and whether registration is required at all — occasionally the answer is that it is not, and the one-stop shop covers everything. We then list the documents needed from your side, with the exact wording for the register extract, and manage translation and apostille.
Form 015 is prepared and filed, and we answer ANAF’s questions during the review. Non-EU companies are registered through fiscal representation, with the agreement drafted before submission. Once the number is issued we set up the Virtual Private Space access, the digital certificate mandate and the mapping of your ERP data to the Romanian nomenclatures, so the first VAT return and the first SAF-T are produced from the same source as everything after them.
For the wider picture, see the guide to VAT in Romania for foreign companies and, for sellers, e-commerce VAT in Romania.
The errors we see most often
- Waiting for a threshold that does not exist. Non-established companies register from the first taxable operation.
- Registering after the stock arrives. The warehouse contract is the trigger, and the goods are usually already in transit when the question is asked.
- Assuming the one-stop shop covers local sales. It covers distance sales; it does not cover a sale made from Romanian stock to a Romanian customer.
- Applying 19% VAT. The standard rate has been 21% since 1 August 2025.
- Treating the VAT number as the end of the project. SAF-T and the recapitulative statements start immediately, and so does the domestic transactions report once you deal in Romania with Romanian VAT-registered businesses.
- Non-EU companies applying directly, without a fiscal representative, and having the file rejected.
