Both individuals and companies can open an online tax account with ANAF, in the Virtual Private Space (in Romanian: “Spațiul Privat Virtual” – SPV), a platform made available by the Romanian tax authorities. The online platform makes it possible for taxpayers to communicate with ANAF online, to file tax returns online, or obtain certain necessary tax documents. All these without the necessity to go physically to any local tax office.
Creating an online tax account requires an individual to go through several steps that are largely similar for both categories of taxpayers. But in the case of individuals, the process involved, until recently, also paying a visit to any tax office as part of the final step to activate the account. Thus, any individual who wanted to open an online tax account with ANAF and who didn’t have any official documents issued by ANAF (e.g., had not been issued any payment orders or tax decisions) had to go to any ANAF office to activate their online account as final step of the procedure.
Nevertheless, starting last year, and forced by the pandemic situation, the tax authorities have made it possible for more categories of individuals to activate the online tax account with ANAF remotely, with no need to pay a visit to any tax office at all. More precisely, those who have been issued one of the following documents can use any of them to activate the account solely online:
Another option for opening the tax account, and that many people use, is “Aprobare la ghișeu” (meaning: “approval at the counter”) – this entails your online account will have to be validated by any local tax office of ANAF. For this, as final step, you have to pay a visit to any local ANAF office (with the registration summary file that will be generated to you online, and your identification documents), to validate your account.
In addition to all of the above possibilities, the authorities implemented also the possibility to activate the tax account through video call (that would be held with a tax inspector for the purpose of validating the applicant’s identity).
We describe below the steps you need to follow for opening an online tax account as an individual taxpayer, through the validation of any ANAF local office (“Aprobare la ghișeu”), or through the video call validating option. To make it easier, we have accompanied each step by screenshots from ANAF’s website (unfortunately the registration steps on the website are only in Romanian), and instructions that we translated in English.
As first step, you have to open ANAF’s website: anaf.ro. Then, on the upper-right side of the first page click on “Înregistrare în Spațiul Privat Virtual”, as shown in the picture below:
On the next page you will have to click on “Înregistrare utilizatori persoane fizice şi juridice”, as shown below.
You will then be directed to a page where you will have to choose the applicable method for your registration – with password or with a digital certificate. If you don’t have a qualified digital certificate available, then the only option is “with password”.
So, on this page, you will first have to select the tab “Persoane fizice” (which is for individuals). Once you make sure this tab is selected, then click on “Înregistrare cu parolă”, as shown in the photo below.
On next page you will have to fill in your personal information, such as: full name, passport number, date of birth, email, etc. (please refer to photo below for details). You will also have to select the type of account validation you want to use as part of the last step (please see below step “Validation of your account”). This must be selected under the line “Tipul de aprobare” (type of approval). Here you have three options, as follows:
For both options above you will have to fill in (in the box that will appear) the registration number of the document.
If neither of the above options is applicable to your case (you haven’t had any contacts with ANAF before), then the below options remain available for your case:
If you chose the option “Aprobare la ghișeu”, a new window will open, where you will have to insert a verification code (“Cod de verificare”). The verification code is automatically sent to you by email, so you will have to check your inbox for the email received automatically from ANAF. Once you find it, copy and paste the verification code, then click on the validation button.
The successful validation will generate a new page where all details of your account will be listed. As part of the last step, you will have to print out this page, and together with copies of your passport and the Romanian residency permit/certificate (as the case may be) take it to the closest ANAF office for the final approval. The inspector from the tax office should be able to approve your account in the same day.
We will further explain how the last validating option works – i.e., validation through video call.
ATTENTION: if you want to use the video call option to validate your Virtual Private Space account, you will need to have a video camera attached to your computer, or a phone camera available. In addition, you have to know that this option requires that you upload a copy of your identity document (i.e., passport) by archiving it in a ZIP file (using a program such as WinZip or WinRAR). So please prepare your computer in advance with the relevant software.
Once you fill in all the required information, you will have to check the “Da” button to agree to the processing of personal data where it says “Sunt de acord cu prelucrarea datelor cu caracter personal conform Regulamentului nr. 2016/679”. Then, upload the copy of your passport, enter the validation code and press the “Continuă” button (which means “Continue”), as shown in the screenshot above.
Upon successful completion of this step, you will automatically receive an email at the address you used for registration. The email will notify you that you have 10 days to schedule an online call for the visual identification and validation of your account in the VPS.
The appointment list may already be full for the next period, especially with the ANAF offices in Bucharest. Therefore, if you want to speed things up, we recommend you schedule the video call with ANAF inspector from any county where you can find availabilities.
To connect into the video conference, you will receive an e-mail with a link and instructions for downloading and installing the Zoom program. (If you don’t already know what Zoom is, well, find out that it’s a very popular online video conferencing connection program. More information on how Zoom works and what you can do with it can be found here).
In the same e-mail you will also receive a link to connect to the video call on the date and time of its appointment. After going through the online identification stage, which should not take more than 3 minutes, you will have to receive several e-mails that will confirm the approval and activation of your online account in VPS with ANAF.
Once this is done, you will receive a confirmation email that your Virtual Private Space with ANAF is approved.
That is all! You can now access your online tax account with ANAF and file your annual Romanian tax return or fulfill your expat salary reporting, as per your particular case.
Founded in 2008 as TAX IQ, our company has gained extensive expertise over the years, allowing us to effectively utilize our experience to benefit our clients’ best interests. Over time, we have succeeded to build a solid reputation as trusted tax advisor for the entire community of Romanian expats.