In Romania, individuals who fail to file the annual tax return (Declaraţia Unică, or the so-called “single return” that is used to declare the personal income tax and social contributions) by the legal deadline expose themselves not only to fines. They can also have the surprise of having their taxes and contributions determined ex officio (i.e., by the tax authority’s own initiative).
We explain below the legal foundations and typical practice of such ex officio tax decisions. It is important to understand how the authorities can obtain an individual’s income data, including foreign income, and what a taxpayer can do in such scenarios. We also offer practical advice for meeting your obligations on time and minimizing exposure.
In accordance with the Romanian Tax Code (Law 227/2015), individuals who earn certain categories of income (e.g., from independent activities, intellectual property, rental of property, investments, agricultural activities, forestry, pisciculture, other sources) are required to file the “declaraţia unică” (the Romanian annual tax return) to report their income and compute the tax and related social contributions (CAS, CASS). The deadline is the 25th of May of each next year.
If a person fails to file the annual tax return by the official deadline, they have no option for extension. So, they may incur a late filing fine. According to art. 336 para. (3) of the Fiscal Procedure Code (Law 207/2015), this fine ranges from 50 to 500 lei.
But beyond the applicable fine, the authorities may also proceed to assess an individual’s tax obligations ex officio – which means without the taxpayer’s declared inputs – under certain legal rules and procedures.
The main legislative framework is the Fiscal Procedure Code (Law no. 207/2015), which gives the Romanian tax authorities the power to fix obligations when taxpayers do not comply with their reporting duties.
For instance:
These general rules are backed up by detailed procedures issued by ANAF (the National Tax Administration Agency).
In 2019, ANAF issued Order no. 2862/2019 approving a detailed “Procedure for ex officio establishment of annual personal income tax” and the corresponding forms it can use as part of this procedure.
This Order sets out the following main rules:
In other words, these procedures aren’t just internal guidelines that ANAF can choose to follow or ignore. They are official legal rules, and ANAF is legally required to apply them whenever it issues a tax assessment. This means that both the tax authorities and taxpayers can rely on them — they set out the exact steps ANAF must follow when calculating or estimating someone’s taxes.
You may wonder: how do the authorities know someone earned taxable income, especially abroad? The answer lies in multiple domestic and international sources and data-exchange mechanisms. We explain them below, in short.
ANAF already holds multiple data points in its system:
The ex officio procedure allows the use of information obtained from third parties via declarative obligations or via information exchange among institutions, and any other information relevant for the establishment of tax obligations. So, if you didn’t file the annual tax return for reporting any type of income you may have derived, you can expect that the authorities probably will have your income information in their files pretty soon.
Even if a taxpayer fails to declare their income, the tax authority may already have indirect evidence of unreported income via these sources.
For individuals earning income abroad, Romania participates in multiple international tax cooperation frameworks, such as:
Consequently, the authorities may legitimately have documented evidence of your foreign income, even if you did not file the annual tax return. These sources enable triggering of ex officio tax assessments specifically for foreign income. The Order 2862 explicitly lists “income from abroad, for which there is a legal obligation to file a tax return” among the categories subject to ex officio imposing measures.
Thus, the myth that “if you don’t declare foreign income, nobody will ever know about it” is flawed in the modern data-exchange era.
Let us walk through how ANAF applies the ex officio tax assessment procedure in real life.
Anytime after the legal deadline to file the annual tax return (which is regularly on May 25 of each next year), the competent department of ANAF reviews records and cross-references available data. They generate a list of individuals who failed to submit the tax return.
Consequently, those individuals are notified and invited to file the missing return. If the taxpayer still does not respond within 15 days, ANAF may proceed with estimation of the tax base and issue an ex officio tax decision.
Estimation is done using data that tax authorities have available in their tax file, from any of the above mentioned sources, or any accounting records (if any), third-party data, benchmarking, historical data, norms, and even declared data for prior years.
If the ex officio tax estimate is based on incomplete or rough data, the decision will be issued “subject to future verifications”, meaning that the final tax due may be modified (upwards or downwards) depending on the outcome of further tax verification that the authorities can undertake.
ANAF issues an ex officio tax decision (“Decizie de impunere din oficiu”) setting out the assessed income tax and social contributions, based on the estimated base. The tax decision is communicated to the taxpayer. If the taxpayer fails to exercise their right to file the missing tax return, the decision becomes an enforceable title (“titlu executoriu”).
The taxpayer has the legal right to file appeals, objections, or seek annulment within the allowed terms, and may present evidence or adjustments to the estimated tax base. However, failure to respond can lead to enforced collection of the taxes, and on top penalties and interest for late payment.
If you find yourself in the situation of receiving an ex officio tax decision, here are steps and strategies you could consider:
Many assume they can “fix it later.” In Romania, ignoring an ANAF notice only makes things worse. Deadlines are short – usually 15 days for response or 45 days for appeal.
Submitting your actual data (Declarația Unică) is the most effective way to replace the estimated figures with real ones, especially if you consider there are discrepancies. Once accepted, ANAF can cancel or adjust the ex officio assessment.
Provide supporting documents – contracts, broker statements, bank statements, proof of foreign taxes paid, or certificates of tax residence abroad, if the case.
You can formally appeal/challenge the decision (this is called a “contestație”). The appeal process can lead to reduction or annulment if the estimate is wrong or unfair.
If the amount is significantly large and you can prove you don’t have the available cash to pay the entire amount, you could try requesting for approval over a payment plan or installment arrangement with ANAF.
A local tax consultant with experience on individual taxation can save you time, stress, and money. They can provide tax advice to help clarify whether you were even supposed to declare certain income in Romania (for example, in case you were tax resident elsewhere).
If foreign income is involved, it’s important to present proof of tax paid abroad (if the case), request for treaty relief (to prevent double taxation), and argue for adjustments based on actual foreign data. By taking proactive, reasoned defense, taxpayers sometimes succeed in reducing or canceling parts of the tax decision.
Do you have any experience with the obligation to file the annual tax return in Romania which you can share with our community or readers? Please post your useful advice below in the comment box.
