Your VAT code was cancelled a few years ago. You carried on trading without entering VAT on your invoices, because you no longer had the right to. Then the inspection came, and the tax authority calculated retroactively the VAT you had never actually collected, with interest and penalties added. Legea nr. 177/2026 cancels these liabilities.
Legea nr. 177/2026 cancels the value added tax and the late-payment charges (accesorii: interest and penalties) that the tax authority established by a tax assessment decision (decizie de impunere) after the automatic cancellation of the VAT code, for the periods between 1 January 2019 and 27 August 2026.
The cancellation operates automatically, without any request. Amounts already paid, however, are refunded only at the taxpayer's request. The law takes effect from 27 August 2026, regardless of when the implementing procedure is published.
The mechanism that generated these liabilities can be described in a few lines.
The tax authority automatically cancels the VAT registration, usually for tax inactivity, for failing to file VAT returns, or under a taxpayer’s own declaration that it is not carrying on economic activities. The company continues trading, but, no longer having a valid code, does not enter VAT on its invoices and does not collect it from clients. After a period that has often reached several years, on the occasion of an inspection, the tax authority calculates retroactively the tax due on those transactions, adds interest and penalties, and issues a tax assessment decision.
The result is a burden the taxpayer must bear out of its own resources, for a tax that the administration itself had forbidden it to collect. For smaller businesses, the amounts have often exceeded their ability to pay, and in some cases the company had already ceased trading by the time the assessment was made.
The administrative practice behind these assessments has been censured at European level. In case C-164/24, Cityland EOOD, the Court of Justice of the European Union held that removing a taxable person from the VAT register for failing to meet certain obligations, without examining the nature of the breaches and the taxpayer's conduct, is contrary to the principles of proportionality and legal certainty. The Court emphasised that the allocation of a VAT code is essential to the functioning of the system and cannot be revoked automatically, in the absence of an individual assessment.
The differences in principal tax liabilities representing value added tax, together with the related accesorii, namely interest and penalties, established by the tax authority through a tax assessment decision issued and communicated to the taxpayer as a result of the cancellation of the VAT registration, are cancelled.
For a situation to fall within the scope of the law, the cancellation of the code must have occurred in one of the cases set out in Article 316(11)(a), (d) and (e) of the Tax Code. For older cancellations, the measure applies equally where the basis was Article 153(9)(a), (b), (d) and (e) of Legea nr. 571/2003, in the form in force on the date of cancellation.
A second set of provisions concerns agricultural cooperatives set up under the agricultural cooperation law, for which the tax differences and the related accesorii are cancelled under similar conditions.
The law does not apply where the taxpayer has shown the tax separately on invoices or has collected it from clients, in full or in part, a circumstance that the tax authority establishes.
The exception is consistent with the rationale of the measure. The amnesty concerns the case where the tax was never collected, so that there is no sum received from the client and kept by the taxpayer. Where the tax has been invoiced and collected, the obligation to pay it over to the state budget continues to exist.
For any taxpayer concerned, the first distinction that matters is that between liabilities that remain unpaid and those that have already been settled.
Unpaid liabilities are cancelled automatically. The tax authority issues a decision cancelling the tax liabilities, which it communicates to the taxpayer. No request is necessary.
Liabilities already settled, whether by payment or by any other method provided for in the Tax Procedure Code, are refunded only on request. This is the distinction worth remembering: a taxpayer who waits to be contacted by the administration will not receive the refund.
Not every cancellation of a code falls within the scope of the law, and the specific provision on which the measure was based is decisive. The basis can be found in the decision cancelling the registration and in the Register of taxable persons whose VAT registration has been cancelled, published by ANAF, Romania's national tax administration.
You will need the tax assessment decision and the tax inspection report (raport de inspecție fiscală) that preceded it. It is checked whether the tax periods fall between 1 January 2019 and 27 August 2026. For what falls outside that interval, other grounds are examined, including the limitation period (prescripție).
The invoices issued are reviewed to establish whether the tax is shown separately and whether it was collected from clients. The conclusion determines whether the situation falls within the scope of the law. The check is necessary in any event, since the tax authority will also carry it out.
No request is necessary, since the cancellation happens automatically. It remains useful to monitor the issue of the cancellation decision and to react promptly if, in the meantime, the tax authority continues enforcement.
A refund request is filed with the competent tax authority, accompanied by the tax assessment decision, proof of payment, and the documents showing the basis for the cancellation of the code. If ANAF's procedure has been published in the meantime, the request follows the form and conditions it sets out.
A dispute seeking to have the tax assessment decision annulled does not lapse automatically by operation of the law, and an unconditional discontinuance could leave you unable to argue the aspects that the amnesty does not cover. Before taking any step that disposes of the proceedings, it is advisable to establish exactly which part is covered.
Enforcement measures based on a claim cancelled by the law are to be lifted. To the extent that the tax authority does not do so, the route remains an appeal against enforcement (contestație la executare), and where imminent harm justifies it, a suspension of enforcement may also be considered.
The implementing procedure is to be approved by order of the president of ANAF, issued within 30 days of the law's entry into force, a deadline that falls at the end of September 2026. At the time this analysis was drafted, the order had not been published.
The natural question is what happens in the meantime.
The law has been in force since 27 August 2026. It defines, on its own terms, the category of liabilities that are cancelled, by reference to the basis for the cancellation of the code and to the period covered, and it directs that the cancellation happen automatically. The implementing procedure organises how the administration carries out an obligation that the law has already established, without making the existence of the right conditional on it.
It can therefore be argued that the absence of the order does not suspend the law's effects, and that enforcement started or continued after 27 August 2026, for a claim falling within the scope of the amnesty, does not become legitimate merely because the implementing rules are delayed.
This remains a legal argument, one to be made concretely, act by act, with each situation's place within the scope of the law checked individually.
The amnesty does not amend the provisions of the Tax Code and does not remove the assessment practice that created the problem. For later tax periods, a taxpayer with a cancelled VAT code remains exposed to the same consequences.
VAT re-registration and sorting out the filing position keep their full importance. Without them, the exposure resumes for the following periods.
The law does not address the right to deduct VAT on purchases made during the period with a cancelled code, a matter that has its own legal regime and its own European case law.
Liabilities established for periods before 1 January 2019 remain outside the amnesty and are examined on other grounds.
The date the law entered into force and the upper limit of the period covered by the amnesty.
The lower limit of the period covered. Liabilities from before this date remain outside the law.
The deadline for the president of ANAF to approve the implementing procedure, calculated from the entry into force.
The deadline for an appeal against enforcement, from the date you became aware of the enforcement act.
No, so long as the liability has not been settled. The cancellation is made automatically, by a decision of the tax authority. A request is necessary only for the refund of amounts already paid.
The law provides for the refund of settled amounts, on request. It is first checked whether the cancellation of the code was based on one of the covered provisions and whether the periods fall within the interval set out.
What matters is the basis for the cancellation, not just the year. The law also applies to cancellations based on Article 153(9)(a), (b), (d) and (e) of the old Tax Code. The periods for which liabilities are cancelled, however, remain those after 1 January 2019.
The exception concerns the case where the tax was shown separately on invoices or collected, in full or in part. The analysis is carried out on the documents, and the outcome may differ by period or by category of transaction.
To the extent that the claim being enforced arises from a tax assessment decision of the type cancelled by the law, the enforcement concerns a liability that no longer exists. The remedy is an appeal against enforcement, within 15 days.
It is preferable not to discontinue before establishing exactly which part of the liability is covered by the amnesty. What remains outside it will continue to be litigated.
Informative material, updated on 18 September 2026. It does not constitute legal or tax advice; individual situations must be assessed on their own facts.
If the appeal period is already running, the other analyses on this subject are grouped under tax litigation. For the concrete stages of a dispute, see tax disputes.
An initial discussion clarifies whether your liabilities fall within the scope of Legea nr. 177/2026, what is cancelled automatically and what must be requested, and how to proceed if enforcement continues before the procedure is published.