The tax inspection or the review of your personal tax situation has ended, and a tax assessment decision (decizie de impunere) has appeared in the Spațiul Privat Virtual (SPV), the tax authority's secure online portal, or in your postbox: additional amounts, interest, penalties. From that moment two clocks start running at once. The first: you have 45 days to appeal the act, a time limit that, once missed, cannot be recovered. The second: shortly after communication, the amount becomes due and can be enforced, even if you have appealed. Here, based on the legislative position in July 2026, is how the appeal works, why it alone does not protect your accounts, and how the complete defence is built.
The tax assessment decision (decizie de impunere) is the tax administrative act by which the tax authority establishes tax liabilities against you, tax, social contributions, usually following a tax inspection, a review of your personal tax situation or a documentary check. It is accompanied by the inspection (or review) report that gives its reasons; the late-payment charges (accesorii: interest and penalties) come in separate decisions, which are also open to appeal.
Legally, the tax assessment decision is a title of claim which becomes an enforceable title (titlu executoriu) once the due date is reached, calculated from communication (Article 156 of the Tax Procedure Code): an act communicated between the 1st and 15th of the month is payable by the 5th of the following month; one communicated between the 16th and 31st, by the 20th of the following month. Between receiving the decision and the moment ANAF, Romania's national tax administration, can move to enforcement, there may therefore be only a few weeks.
The day of communication is therefore essential. A warning about the SPV: the act is deemed communicated on the date it is accessed, but no later than 15 days after it is made available, even if you never opened it. “I did not see the message” stops no time limit.
On the numbers side, expert evidence in tax litigation often decides the outcome of the case.
You cannot go straight to court against a tax assessment decision: the law first requires the administrative appeal (contestație), governed by Article 268 et seq. of the Tax Procedure Code. The essential rules, in force in July 2026:
The possible outcomes (Article 279): allowing the appeal, with total or partial annulment of the act, setting the act aside with the audit redone (only once for the same claim and period), or dismissal. The general statutory time limit for a decision is 45 days, extendable when further information is needed; in practice it often takes several months. The decision on the appeal is final within the system of administrative remedies.
A strategic detail, confirmed by the ÎCCJ (Înalta Curte de Casație și Justiție, Romania's High Court of Cassation and Justice) (Decision no. 20/2023): in court you are not confined to the grounds raised in the appeal. Even so, an appeal argued professionally from the outset remains the only chance of closing the dispute without years of litigation.
This is where most defences are lost. Article 278(1) of the Tax Procedure Code is categorical: filing the appeal does not suspend enforcement of the tax administrative act. While your appeal awaits a decision, the collection machinery moves forward:
Once the due date is reached, the tax assessment decision becomes an enforceable title, and the file can move to enforcement.
Enforcement begins with a payment demand (somație), accompanied by the enforceable title; you have 15 days from its communication to pay or to notify your intention to seek mediation with the tax authority.
If nothing happens, garnishment (poprire) follows, sent electronically and simultaneously to every bank where you hold accounts, and, where applicable, seizure of assets.
Meanwhile, interest and penalties keep accumulating, day by day, on the debt established by the decision.
The practical conclusion: anyone who files the appeal and then waits passively can end up with a garnished salary and frozen accounts months before any ruling on the merits. That is why the appeal must, almost always, be backed by one of two safety nets: judicial suspension of enforcement or a payment schedule (eșalonare la plată).
The law offers a powerful tool: suspension of enforcement of the tax administrative act by the administrative court (Article 14 of Legea nr. 554/2004, read together with Article 278 of the Tax Procedure Code). The application can be made immediately after the appeal is filed, you do not wait for it to be decided, and it is heard urgently, with the parties summoned. The court does not grant it automatically; two conditions must be proven, cumulatively:
Circumstances relating to the facts and the law capable of creating a serious doubt as to the lawfulness of the act (Article 2(1)(t) of Legea nr. 554/2004): for example, procedural defects in the inspection, a tax base built on unfounded estimates, or the documents you submitted being ignored.
Future and foreseeable material loss (point ș): garnishment of a salary or pension, freezing of the accounts the family lives on, risk to the home, or the strangling of the activity of a PFA (persoană fizică autorizată), the authorised sole-trader form.
To these is added a financial condition: the security (cauțiune), calculated in bands against the amount contested (Article 278(2) of the Tax Procedure Code):
Examples: for 100,000 lei contested, the security is 5,500 lei; for 300,000 lei, 7,500 lei; for 1,000,000 lei, 14,500 lei (proportionally, ever more affordable as the amount grows). The security is lodged at the court's disposal and is not a payment: it is returned, on the conditions laid down by law, at the end of the proceedings.
The effects are substantial (Article 278(3)-(4)): all effects of the act are frozen, including for the accesorii, the liabilities do not appear on the tax clearance certificate, and during the suspension no late-payment or non-declaration penalties are owed (interest keeps running). Enforcement cannot start, and enforcement already begun does not continue.
Two warnings. The first: suspension under Article 14 lasts until the court rules on the merits and lapses automatically if you do not bring the action for annulment within 60 days of communication of the decision on the appeal (Article 278(5)), far shorter than the general 6-month time limit. The second: for protection throughout the whole proceedings, suspension must be requested again, under Article 15 of Legea nr. 554/2004, together with the main action; the security already lodged remains valid (Article 278(6)).
If the decision on the appeal does not go in your favour, or the appeal is not decided at all, tax litigation follows:
In court the procedural ground is wider: new evidence, a court-appointed expert report (expertiză judiciară), further grounds of unlawfulness beyond those in the appeal. Realistically, though, tax litigation run to completion, first instance plus the appeal on points of law, is measured in years, not months. That is exactly why the question “how do I survive financially until the final ruling?” matters as much as the merits, and the answer to it is built in the first 45 days, not in year two of the proceedings.
In a well-managed case, the four tools do not compete, they complement one another:
The gateway to court and the only chance of closing the dispute quickly. It is built on evidence, not indignation, and is filed within the 45 days.
Where there are solid arguments of unlawfulness and demonstrable financial impact, an application filed immediately after the appeal protects your accounts and assets for the duration of the fight.
If suspension is not feasible, a payment schedule (eșalonare) prevents enforcement for the liabilities it covers: the instalments run, garnishments do not. From 1 January 2026 (Legea nr. 239/2025), a simplified payment schedule, with no guarantees, over a maximum of 12 months, is available to individuals for debts of up to 100,000 lei (400,000 lei for legal persons); the classic payment schedule, over up to 5 years, remains open for any amount, with guarantees. A payment schedule, or even payment in full, does not mean giving up the appeal; if the act is set aside, the amounts are refunded, on request, with interest.
An extrajudicial tax expert report, prepared by a tax adviser holding expert status (the rules of the CCF, the Chamber of Tax Advisers, on tax expert reports, in force since 11 February 2026), recalculates the tax base and technically dismantles the inspection's methodology. It serves as evidence in the appeal, as support for the “serious doubt” required for suspension, and as a benchmark for the future court-appointed expert report.
Above all, the rule that ties the whole strategy together: early intervention. Ideally, the defence does not start at the tax assessment decision, but at the draft inspection report, through your written position and the final discussion. But even after the decision is communicated, the difference between an organised response in the first days and an improvised one after the payment demand is often the difference between assets protected and assets garnished. For more on the role of the party-appointed tax expert and on assistance in tax litigation, see the dedicated pages.
WARNING. The 45-day time limit is decisive and operates on pain of forfeiture: once it is missed, the tax assessment decision becomes final at administrative level, and the route to court on the merits of the liability effectively closes, however unfair the amount may be. Do not use up the time limit “negotiating” informally with the tax authority, and do not confuse payment with a defence; pay if you want to stop the accesorii, but appeal within the time limit. Calculate the time limit from communication, including communication through the SPV, and leave a margin for drafting and evidence.
Yes. Payment is not the same as acknowledging the liability and does not bar the right to appeal, within the same 45-day time limit. It stops the interest and the risk of enforcement, and if the act is later annulled, the amounts are refunded, on request, with interest. For those who have the cash available, paying and then appealing is often the lowest-risk option.
Yes, through the SPV, with an immediate registration number, or by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt. What matters is being able to prove the date and content of the filing. No fee is payable.
The margin becomes very narrow. First check whether the act contained the mandatory statements about the right to appeal; if not, the time limit is 3 months. Otherwise, only targeted routes remain: an appeal against enforcement (contestație la executare) for irregularities in the enforcement stage, a payment schedule to manage payment, and possible applications for special defects in the act. All of these require a prompt review of the actual file.
The administrative stage: a statutory time limit of 45 days, in practice often several months; after 6 months with no answer you can go straight to court. The judicial stage: first instance plus the appeal on points of law realistically means years. That is why suspension or a payment schedule are not cosmetic options, but the condition for the final victory to still have something left to protect.
Informative material, updated on 17 July 2026. It reflects the legislative position at the date of drafting; it does not constitute legal or tax advice and does not replace an analysis of your own particular situation.
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.
Time limits run from the date of communication. A first conversation clarifies what is being alleged, what you need to substantiate and how the defence is built, before an estimate becomes a tax assessment decision.