Programmer, consultant, trader or sales agent, you have set up a company abroad, often online, on someone’s recommendation. Clients pay the company, and the company sends you money. The structure exists in law, but for ANAF, Romania’s national tax administration, something else matters: where you live, where the decisions are taken and how the money reaches you.
A company lawfully incorporated abroad is a taxpayer separate from you. That does not mean that its income, and the money you receive from it, escape taxation in Romania.
The Tax Code also subjects to Romanian profit tax a foreign company whose place of effective management is here. If all decisions are taken from your laptop in Brașov or Cluj, the company may be treated, for tax purposes, as a Romanian company. Separately, money taken out of the company by a Romanian tax resident is dividends or other income, which is declared in Romania.
Where amounts move without documents, ANAF may treat them as your income, and the Tax Code allows it to disregard a transaction that has no economic purpose. The difference between an inefficient structure and one that ends up in criminal territory lies in documents and transparency. See what still works lawfully in 2026.
It is a common misconception that a company in a distant jurisdiction remains invisible. Under the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS), banks in more than 100 jurisdictions report accounts, including those of companies, together with the persons who control them. In 2022, data on 111 million accounts circulated in this way. Cyprus, the Emirates, the Seychelles and the British Virgin Islands all apply this standard.
In addition to the CRS there are the registers of beneficial owners, reporting by digital platforms (DAC7) and, from 2026, reporting on crypto-assets (DAC8). And money paid into accounts in Romania and assets bought here are visible to ANAF in any event.
No one needs to request this data. It reaches ANAF automatically, and ANAF compares it with the income declared. A Romanian resident who regularly receives money from a foreign company without declaring anything shows up in risk analyses.
What matters to ANAF are the documents showing who runs the company, from where, and how the money reaches you. Keep them for each year.
They show who owns the company and who its beneficial owner is. ANAF has access to this information in any event through administrative cooperation.
They show what activity the company carries on, for whom, and where the services are actually performed.
Minutes of the board or of the sole shareholder, with the place and date of the decisions. They are the main evidence of the place of effective management.
They show the profit, the tax paid by the company in its own state, and whether the company has substance: an office, employees, real expenses.
They prove that the money received is dividends, lawfully distributed, and not amounts withdrawn without a legal basis.
Issued by the tax authority of the company’s state. Necessary for the double tax treaty to apply, but insufficient without the other documents.
The first question is your own residence. If you keep your domicile or your centre of vital interests in Romania, you are a Romanian tax resident (Article 7(28) of the Tax Code) and you declare your worldwide income here, including dividends from the foreign company.
The second question is the company’s residence. A certificate of residence issued in the company’s state does not stop ANAF’s analysis if decisions are, in fact, taken in Romania. If the company is held through your own Romanian SRL (societate cu răspundere limitată, a limited-liability company), the controlled foreign company (CFC) rules also come into play. For a person who has genuinely moved to the company’s state, the analysis looks entirely different. See also the permanent establishment of a foreign company in Romania.
Dividends received from the foreign company by a Romanian tax resident are declared in Romania, with the related tax, and CASS, the health insurance contribution, is due according to the statutory thresholds.
If ANAF treats the amounts as income from your personal activity rather than as dividends, the calculation changes: tax on income from independent activities, plus CAS, the state pension contribution, and CASS. That is why the legal nature of each amount received is the point on which an administrative appeal (contestație) is won or lost.
ANAF’s right to assess taxes is, as a rule, time-barred after 5 years, counted from 1 July of the year following the year for which the tax is due (Article 110 of the Tax Procedure Code). Where the obligation arises from acts that constitute criminal offences, the law provides for a 10-year period.
The decision may include the company’s profit tax, if ANAF treats it as a company managed from Romania, tax on your income, and social contributions, CAS and CASS.
Interest and late-payment penalties are added for every day from the due date until payment, so the amount grows with each year reviewed.
A decision that is not appealed in time can be enforced, including by garnishment (poprire) of accounts in Romania and by measures against assets held here.
When you buy a house or make large deposits into an account, money received from the company abroad may be treated as unjustified income, taxable at 70%, if its origin is not proved.
I work with clients who have companies abroad and live in Romania or outside it. The legal assistance agreement is signed remotely. Under a lawyer’s power of attorney (împuternicire avocațială), I represent you before ANAF and, if necessary, before the Romanian courts.
We talk by telephone, on WhatsApp or by video call, in real time, in Romanian or in English. You obtain the company’s documents from the registered agent or the accountant, and I tell you exactly which ones are needed.
I carry out the analysis as a lawyer, tax adviser and forensic tax expert. When the discussion risks moving into criminal territory, the tax defence and the criminal defence need to be built together, from the outset. See also assistance for offshore structures.
The company itself is lawful. The problem is the tax effect: if the company is managed from Romania, it may be taxed here, and the money you take out of it is income taxable in Romania. An undeclared structure can end up in criminal territory.
The place where the company’s important decisions are, in fact, taken. If they are taken in Romania, the Tax Code may treat the foreign company as a company subject to Romanian profit tax.
Yes, if you are a Romanian tax resident. Dividends are declared with the related tax and, where applicable, with CASS. Amounts without a documented basis may be treated by ANAF as income from your own activity.
Do not reply and do not pay before it has been analysed. What you declare now may also be used in any criminal proceedings that follow. Send me the document and I will tell you how to respond.
Yes. The engagement is signed remotely, I represent you before ANAF and the Romanian courts under a lawyer’s power of attorney (împuternicire avocațială), and we communicate by telephone, on WhatsApp or by video call.
Information material, updated on 3 October 2026. It does not constitute legal or tax advice; individual situations must be analysed on their own facts.
The analyses for Romanians who have moved abroad are grouped in the section Romanians living abroad, where you will also find all the countries. The general rule for salary income is explained in Working abroad, and for a specific situation see assistance for Romanians living abroad.
Italy, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, the United States and Canada, the United Arab Emirates and offshore companies.
See all countriesSalary paid by an employer in the Emirates for work performed there is not taxed in Romania, even though the Emirates levy no tax on salaries. What changes for freelancers and for free-zone companies.
Read the analysisSalary paid by an American or Canadian employer for work performed there is not taxed in Romania. W-2, T4, the tax treaties, FATCA and the social security agreement with the United States, in force from 2026.
Read the analysisSalary paid by a British employer for work performed in the United Kingdom is not taxed in Romania, but self-employed income is treated differently. The new 2026 tax treaty, P60, SA302 and a defence conducted remotely.
Read the analysisSend me the notice or the decision on WhatsApp or by e-mail. I will tell you what can be challenged and which documents are needed.