VAT registration and filing of VAT returns in Romania

If you run a cross-border business and sale items to non-taxable persons (B2C persons) in Romania, you may be required to register for VAT in Romania and file your declarations accordingly. This particularly affects you if you sell through your site or marketplace and fall into one of the following cases:

• You perform distance sales;
• You perform dropshipping;
• You sell goods that have been shipped in advance to a marketplace warehouse, a fulfilment centre or a rented warehouse in Romania, from where you send the goods your customers.
• There are also other rare cases which require registration.

Intra-Community distance sales

If you sell goods to individuals in Romania from your site or through marketplaces (e.g. Emag) and send the goods from Bulgaria to your customers in Romania you are making intra-Community distance sales. In this case, you are subject to VAT registration in Romania after a turnover of EUR 26,135. To do this you need to keep track of your sales amount and after reaching the abovementioned amount, you should submit an application for registration.

Dropshipping

When doing a delivery with a place of performance on the territory of the country, foreign companies are subject to obligatory registration before making the first delivery. If you sell through your site or through a marketplace to individuals in Romania goods that you do not own and the goods reside with your supplier located in Romania, then the place of performance is in Romania and this creates the respective obligation. The case is similar if you sell in Poland for example (or any other EU country) and your supplier is in Romania and he/she sends the goods directly to your customers in Poland. According to the VAT Law, you become the owner of the goods before they are handed over to the final customer and you have an obligation to register for VAT in Romania, since the goods are sent from there. Depending on the amount of your sales in Poland, you may be required to register for VAT in Poland for your remote sales there.

You sell goods that have been shipped in advance to a marketplace warehouse, a fulfilment centre or a rented warehouse from where you send the goods to your customers.

If your activity is related to the sale of goods (which are your property), which are in a warehouse in Romania, you are required to register for VAT in Romania before the first sale. The requirement is new and is connected to the synchronization of the Rumanian VAT Act with the European legislation (Directive 2006/112/EC). In some cases, you should register not only for VAR, but your place of business in Romania too and to pay corporate tax for your profits there.

When making sales in Romania, you should know that a differentiated VAT rate applies there – 19%, 9 % и 5%

• 19% is the standard VAT rate covering basic products and services
• 9% is used for food, medicine, prosthetics for people with disabilities, hotel accommodations, soft drinks and some agricultural products.
• 5% is used for books (excluding e-books), newspapers and periodical publications, visits to cultural and sporting events, restaurants and catering services (except some alcoholic beverages), take-away food, bars, cafes and nightclubs (except some alcoholic beverages).

You should also keep in mind that, in addition to VAT registration, you also have obligations related to Intrastat after reaching the set flow parameters of arrivals under Romanian law (RON 900,000).

We can perform all these activities for you so you can be calm, secure and grow your business without wandering into the unknown.