Company tax

Categories of taxpayers liable to pay the company tax:

• foreign legal entities carrying out a business activity through a permanent establishment or several permanent establishments in Romania;
• foreign legal entities whose place of effective management is in Romania;
• foreign legal entities generating income from transfer of real estate located in Romania or whose entitlements in respect of that real estate, including hiring out or assignment of the right of use of the goods pertaining to the real estate located in Romania;
• legal entities with their registered office in Romania, established in accordance with EU law;
• foreign legal entities resident in a third country carrying out their business activity in Romania through one or several arrangements treated as permanent establishments, for cases involving the existence of hybrid mismatches or tax residency mismatches;
• the tax-transparent entity, for cases involving the existence of reverse hybrid mismatches.

Scope of tax

Company tax is applied as follows:

• for Romanian and foreign legal entities whose place of effective management is in Romania and for legal entities with their registered office in Romania, established in accordance with EU law, on the taxable profit obtained from any source in Romania and abroad;
• for foreign legal entities carrying out a business activity through a permanent establishment or several permanent establishments in Romania, on the taxable profit pertaining to the permanent establishment, namely the taxable profit of the permanent establishment designated to fulfil tax obligations;
• for foreign legal entities generating income as listed in Article 12(h), on their taxable profit.

Tax rate

In Romania, a company tax rate of 16% is applied to the taxable profit.

Special scheme applicable to taxpayers carrying out business activities pertaining to night bars, night clubs, discotheques, casinos

For taxpayers carrying out activities related to night bars, night clubs, discotheques or casinos, including legal entities generating income under an association contract, for which the company tax rate due is below 5% of that income, must pay a tax rate of 5% charged on that recorded revenue.

Declaring and paying the company tax

The company tax can be declared and paid by taxpayers on a quarterly and annual basis.

Quarterly payment

The company tax is calculated, declared and paid on a quarterly basis by the twenty-fifth day inclusive of the first month following the end of the first, second and third quarters. Early quarterly payments are determined as a quarter of the company tax due for the previous year, which is updated with the consumer price rate estimated when drafting the initial budget of the year for which early payments are made.

Annual payment

Taxpayers can opt for calculating, declaring and paying the company tax on an annual basis and for making early quarterly payments. The deadline by which the annual tax must be paid is the deadline for submission of the company tax return, i.e. by 25 March inclusive of the following year.