Income Tax in Romania
The CNP is the fiscal code for income tax and contributions: Income Tax in Romania explains the tax itself.
tax identification number
By Mihai Dumitrescu, VAT and tax compliance lead · Reviewed by Ioana Marinescu, Accounting and reporting client lead · Updated October 2026
Romania's tax identification number is the cod de identificare fiscală (CIF), the fiscal identification code. A company on the trade register uses its CUI, a person with Romanian identity papers uses the CNP, and a person without a CNP receives a NIF. The VAT code is RO plus the code. Apart from the CNP, only ANAF assigns these codes.

One generic term in the law, several numbers in practice: which one applies depends on who holds the code.
Fiscal registration, in the words of art. 81(1) of the Fiscal Procedure Code (Law 207/2015, ANAF consolidation to OUG 38/2026), means three things: assigning the code, keeping the taxpayer register and issuing the certificate of fiscal registration. Art. 81(2) gives the assignment of the code to ANAF, the central tax authority, alone, on the registration return. The code is the number every return asks for, whichever of every tax a foreign owner meets in Romania, from profit tax to dividends is being filed.
Every person or entity in a tax relationship is registered and receives one fiscal identification code (art. 82(1)). What changes is the form the code takes, which depends on the holder. The table sets the six identifiers side by side, with the article behind each.
| Holder | Romanian term (gloss) | Who assigns it | Article |
|---|---|---|---|
| any person or entity in a tax relationship | cod de identificare fiscală, CIF (the generic term) | ANAF only, on the registration return | art. 81(2), 82(1) Fiscal Procedure Code |
| SRL, SA, PFA and other trade-register entities | cod unic de înregistrare, CUI (unique registration code) | ANAF, on the data ONRC sends; structure set by ANAF | art. 82(1)(b) Fiscal Procedure Code; art. 126 Law 265/2022 (2022 text) |
| legal persons outside the trade register | cod de înregistrare fiscală (fiscal registration code) | the tax office | art. 82(1)(a) Fiscal Procedure Code |
| individual with Romanian identity papers | cod numeric personal, CNP (personal numeric code) | under the special law | art. 82(1)(d), 82(2) Fiscal Procedure Code |
| individual without a CNP | număr de identificare fiscală, NIF (tax identification number) | the tax office; replaced by the CNP later | art. 82(1)(e) Fiscal Procedure Code |
| VAT-registered person | cod de înregistrare în scopuri de TVA (VAT code, prefix RO) | ANAF, under art. 316 or art. 317 | art. 318(1), 318(4) Fiscal Code |
Romanian tax identification numbers by holder. Sources: the Fiscal Procedure Code, consolidation to OUG 38/2026; the Fiscal Code, consolidation to Law 170/2026; Law 265/2022, text as adopted in 2022.
The same rule covers a PFA (persoană fizică autorizată), the form often weighed by anyone working as a freelancer in Romania: it registers at the trade register, so the code it carries is a CUI (art. 82(1)(b)).
For a company registered at the trade register, the fiscal code is the cod unic de înregistrare (CUI, unique registration code) assigned under the special law (art. 82(1)(b) Fiscal Procedure Code). CIF is the generic term; the CUI is the company's form of it. The statute in force still uses the words codul unic de înregistrare, so 'CUI', 'company tax ID' and 'Romanian tax code' all name the same number.
ANAF assigns the CUI on the data that the National Trade Register Office (ONRC) sends once the filing is admitted, under art. 125-126 of Law 265/2022 on the trade register, in the text as adopted in 2022. The same law leaves the structure of the CUI to ANAF (art. 126(3)), so the format is the tax authority's to set and this guide prints no digit pattern for it.
Two rules of art. 82 matter for a new company. Where a taxpayer is not registered on a first return, the date of fiscal registration is the date the code is assigned (art. 82(11)(b)). The code may also be used to meet tax obligations of periods before that date (art. 82(12)), so a company is not left without a number for its earliest filings.
The J number has its own structure and rules, which our guide to the Romanian company registration number covers.
Not on its own. A Romanian VAT code, assigned under art. 316 or art. 317 of the Fiscal Code, carries the prefix RO (art. 318(1) Fiscal Code, ANAF consolidation to Law 170/2026). RO plus the code is the VAT code. A company that is not registered for VAT shows its fiscal code without the prefix: that is our reading of art. 318(1) together with the invoice rule of art. 319(20), which asks for the VAT code or, failing that, the fiscal code.
One company, three identifiers
CUI
the fiscal code
RO + CUI
VAT code under art. 316
Art. 317 code
prefix RO, art. 318(1)
A company under the 395,000 lei ceiling of art. 310(1) Fiscal Code may keep the small-enterprise exemption and then invoices with its fiscal code alone. Founders who want VAT from the first day can ask for it in the trade register filing, as the section on a new SRL below shows.
The two kinds of VAT code also travel differently. An art. 316 code is given to every supplier and every customer; an art. 317 code goes to the supplier where the company owes the VAT, and to an EU business customer when the company supplies it services taxed in that customer's state (art. 318(4)). The VAT number itself, its lookup and its procedure are the subject of our Romanian VAT number guide.
A foreign bank, broker or platform that asks for a 'Romanian TIN', a 'tax ID number' or a 'foreign tax identifying number' is asking for the art. 82 code of the holder. This guide answers that field from Romanian law only. The rules of the form itself, such as CRS self-certification or a W-8BEN, are outside it.
The European Commission's TIN on-the-Web portal cannot settle the question for a company. It checks only the structure of a natural person's TIN, not whether the number exists, and it does not validate a legal entity's TIN.
A company does not apply to ANAF for its code on its own: the CUI comes out of the trade register filing (art. 125-126 Law 265/2022, 2022 text).
Everything else the founders sign is set out in what a foreign founder signs and files to open a Romanian SRL.
When the founders request VAT registration inside the ONRC filing, the registration is valid from the date the company is entered in the trade register (art. 316(1^1)(a) Fiscal Code). From that date, the company's VAT code is RO followed by its CUI.
A non-resident named in the constitutive act files nothing to get a NIF: the trade register office asks for it (art. 83 Fiscal Procedure Code).
Collecting that certificate and filing the later returns of changes can sit inside the accounting contract, where the work is performed by CECCAR-registered accountants: the scope is on the detailed accounting services page.
Since 18 December 2025, when a transfer of SRL shares hands over control, the seller, the buyer or the company notifies the transfer to ANAF within 15 days of it (art. V(1)(a) Law 239/2025, Official Journal 1160 of 15 December 2025). The new non-resident member's NIF is still requested by ONRC on the transfer itself (art. 83(1) Fiscal Procedure Code).
From our practice. A recurring case: a foreign director is told the VAT file cannot go in without a personal NIF. We read the constitutive act first. If the director is named in it, ONRC requested the NIF at incorporation, and the certificate may still be waiting, uncollected, at the tax office. Mihai Dumitrescu, VAT and tax compliance lead
Four routes lead to a NIF outside the trade register. The individual starts the first; a bank, a notary or a payer of income starts the other three.
The individual files form 030, the return for people without a CNP, with copies of the supporting documents (art. 82(10)). Where an attorney acts, the return carries the attorney's data (art. 86(2)). ANAF puts the time to complete it at 10 minutes.
A bank opening an account or a safe-deposit box for a non-resident asks ANAF for the NIF through ANAF's online application. The answer comes within 5 days, and the bank files no supporting documents (art. 83(4), 86(3)).
A notary may ask ANAF to register a non-resident who holds no code, so that a deed before the notary can go ahead (art. 83(4^1)). The text sets no term for the answer.
Where income is taxed only by withholding, the Romanian payer may ask the tax office to assign the recipient's code (art. 82(3)). Here too, the text sets no term.
| Route | Who triggers it | Statutory timing | What the person supplies | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New SRL: the CUI | the founders, at the trade register office; ANAF assigns on ONRC's data | registrar: one working day, entry no more than 24 hours later (2022 text) | the ONRC file; foreign official documents in original, apostilled or superlegalised where required, with a legalised Romanian translation | art. 76, 79, 105, 107, 125-126 Law 265/2022 |
| New SRL: VAT in the same filing | the founders, in the ONRC file | VAT code valid from the trade register date | as above | art. 316(1^1)(a) Fiscal Code |
| Non-resident founder, shareholder or director: NIF via ONRC | the trade register office | Ministry of Finance answers that day or the next at the latest | nothing beyond the ONRC file | art. 83(1)-(2) Fiscal Procedure Code |
| Individual without a CNP: form 030 | the individual, or their attorney | certificate within 10 days of the return | form 030 with copies of supporting documents | art. 82(10), 86(2), 87(1) Fiscal Procedure Code |
| Withholding-only income | the Romanian payer | no term in the law | not set out in the law read | art. 82(3) Fiscal Procedure Code |
| Bank account or safe-deposit box | the bank, through ANAF's online application | within 5 days of the request | the bank's own file; no documents to ANAF | art. 83(4), 86(3) Fiscal Procedure Code |
| Notarial deed | the notary | no term in the law | not set out in the law read | art. 83(4^1) Fiscal Procedure Code |
Five routes to a Romanian tax number
Through the trade register
the request travels in the ONRC file
Outside the trade register
the individual or a third party starts it
The certificate of fiscal registration is free of stamp duty, art. 87(2) Fiscal Procedure Code.
How the number is obtained, by route. Sources: the Fiscal Procedure Code, the Fiscal Code and Law 265/2022, 2022 text.
Returns of changes and certificate collection can run inside the monthly accounting contract, performed by CECCAR-registered accountants.
It can. A company that is not registered for VAT registers under art. 317 of the Fiscal Code before it receives services from a supplier established in another member state on which it owes Romanian VAT (art. 317(1)(c) Fiscal Code). It does the same before an intra-EU acquisition whose value goes above the 10,000 euro threshold (art. 317(1)(a), art. 268(4)(b)).
That art. 317 code carries the RO prefix (art. 318(1)) and goes to the supplier where the company owes the VAT, and to an EU business customer when the company supplies it services taxed in that customer's state (art. 318(4)(b)). The 395,000 lei ceiling of art. 310(1) answers a different question: it decides the small-enterprise exemption, not the art. 317 code. The filing itself belongs to registering your SRL for VAT with ANAF.

The tax office issues the certificate of fiscal registration within 10 days of the return or request, and the certificate must carry the fiscal code (art. 87(1) Fiscal Procedure Code, consolidation to OUG 38/2026). Through ONRC, the Ministry of Finance answers that day or the next at the latest (art. 83(2)). Through a bank, the answer comes within 5 days of the bank's request (art. 83(4)).
Issuing the certificate of fiscal registration carries no extrajudicial stamp duty (art. 87(2)); a company's CUI comes through the ONRC filing, whose fees this guide does not state. SPV (Spațiul Privat Virtual, the private virtual space), ANAF's online account, is a free service, and the ANAF and Ministry of Finance lookups described below are public. A firm that handles the filings charges for its own work, not for the code.
A NIF certificate issued through ONRC stays at the tax office until the taxpayer or their attorney collects it (art. 83(2)). A lost, stolen or destroyed certificate is replaced by a duplicate on request, once the loss is published in the Official Journal, Part III (art. 87(3)). The same rules apply to the VAT registration certificate (art. 87(4)).
The registration return behind the certificate carries the identification data, the vector fiscal (the list of taxes the taxpayer is registered for), the secondary offices, the attorney's data and the legal status of the taxpayer (art. 86(2)).
ANAF's forms list carries the fiscal registration returns under OPANAF 1699/2021 as amended; the five below are the ones a foreign-owned company, its founders and directors meet, and the 2026 files of all five are named after OPANAF 15/2026. A trade-register company receives its CUI through the ONRC filing rather than on a form of its own, so for an SRL these forms come into play for later changes.
| Form | For whom | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 010 | legal persons, associations and entities without legal personality | registration, changes and deregistration |
| 015 | non-resident entities without a permanent establishment in Romania | registration, changes and deregistration |
| 020 | Romanian and foreign individuals who hold a CNP | registration and changes |
| 030 | individuals without a CNP (the NIF form) | ANAF states 10 minutes to complete it; also the deregistration return once a CNP is assigned |
| 700 | taxpayers already registered | changes and deregistration, filed online |
When a person with a NIF later obtains a CNP, the tax office replaces the NIF with the CNP and carries over the tax information recorded under the NIF (art. 82(1)(e) Fiscal Procedure Code). ANAF's forms list notes that form 030 is also the deregistration return in that case. Moving to Romania raises a separate question: whether a digital nomad in Romania becomes a Romanian tax resident.
Deregistration withdraws the code and the certificate of fiscal registration, and the tax office does it ex officio when a legal person ceases to exist (art. 90(1), (3)). The code outlives the company in one way: successors may still use it to meet the tax obligations of the periods in which the entity existed (art. 90(4)).
Five official lookups answer five different questions, and none of them is a commercial validator. On format, the law says two things: a VAT code is RO plus the code (art. 318(1) Fiscal Code), and the structure of the CUI is set by ANAF (art. 126(3) Law 265/2022, 2022 text). Pick the lookup by the question, not by the number you hold.

| Lookup | Searched by | What it answers | What it does not answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| ANAF VAT register | fiscal code | whether the company is registered for VAT under art. 316 | a registration under art. 317: the register is kept for art. 316 |
| ANAF register of inactive or reactivated taxpayers | fiscal code | whether the taxpayer is listed as inactive or reactivated | whether the company is registered for VAT |
| Ministry of Finance company data | CUI, name and county | the company's registration data | how to change identification data: that goes through ONRC |
| VIES | RO VAT code | whether the EU VAT number is valid | the fiscal code of a company not registered for VAT |
| EU TIN on-the-Web | TIN | whether the structure of a natural person's TIN is valid | whether the TIN exists, or a company's TIN |
This guide reads the Fiscal Procedure Code in the ANAF consolidation to OUG 38/2026 and the Fiscal Code in the consolidation to Law 170/2026. The 2016 copy of the Fiscal Procedure Code is superseded and is not used here. Four dated changes touch the numbers on this page.
| Date | Change | What it replaced |
|---|---|---|
| 1 September 2025 | VAT exemption ceiling of 395,000 lei (OG 22/2025; art. 310(1) Fiscal Code) | 300,000 lei |
| 18 December 2025 | Law 239/2025 in force: a controlling SRL stake transfer is notified to ANAF within 15 days of the transfer (art. V(1)(a)); ONRC still requests the new non-resident member's NIF (art. 83(1) Fiscal Procedure Code) | no earlier rule on this point in the texts read |
| 2026 | ANAF form files 010, 015, 020, 030 and 700 named after OPANAF 15/2026 | earlier versions of the forms |
| 2026 | Fiscal Procedure Code consolidation to OUG 38/2026; Fiscal Code consolidation to Law 170/2026 | the superseded 2016 copy of the Fiscal Procedure Code |
All consulted in October 2026.
No stamp duty applies to the certificate of fiscal registration (art. 87(2) Fiscal Procedure Code); a company's CUI comes through the ONRC filing, whose fees we do not state. SPV, ANAF's online account, is a free service, and the official lookups are public. A firm that handles the filings for you charges for its work, not for the number.
Check first whether the NIF already exists. A non-resident director named in the constitutive act receives a NIF through the trade register office: ONRC requests it at incorporation or at the later change, and the Ministry of Finance answers that day or the next at the latest (art. 83(1)-(2) Fiscal Procedure Code). The certificate then waits at the tax office.
Only with RO in front, and only once the company is registered for VAT. A Romanian VAT code carries the prefix RO (art. 318(1) Fiscal Code). A company that is not VAT-registered shows its fiscal code on invoices instead (art. 319(20)). The ANAF VAT register and VIES show which of the two applies to the number you hold.
Within the limits the law sets. The certificate can be collected by the taxpayer's attorney (art. 83(2) Fiscal Procedure Code), and a non-resident who communicates with ANAF electronically need not appoint a representative (art. 18(5)(c)). We file registration returns and returns of changes only inside the accounting contract, where the work is performed by CECCAR-registered accountants.
The generic term is cod de identificare fiscală (CIF), the fiscal identification code. A trade-register company uses its CUI, other legal persons a fiscal registration code from the tax office, an individual with Romanian identity papers the CNP, and an individual without a CNP a NIF (art. 82(1) Fiscal Procedure Code).
Write the art. 82 code of the holder. A Romanian resident individual writes the CNP, the fiscal code for income tax and social contributions; a Romanian company writes its CUI; a non-resident who holds a Romanian code writes the NIF. The rules of the form itself, such as CRS or W-8BEN, are outside this guide.
Usually through the trade register: on incorporation, a share transfer, a new legal representative, a new member or a capital increase, ONRC requests a NIF for every non-resident named in the constitutive act (art. 83(1) Fiscal Procedure Code). Outside ONRC, a bank, a notary or form 030 filed at the tax office leads to the same number.
The tax office issues the certificate of fiscal registration within 10 days of the return or request (art. 87(1) Fiscal Procedure Code). Through ONRC, the Ministry of Finance answers that day or the next at the latest (art. 83(2)); through a bank, within 5 days of the bank's request (art. 83(4)). These are statutory terms, not promised dates.
For a NIF assigned through ONRC, the certificate stays at the tax office until the taxpayer or their attorney collects it (art. 83(2) Fiscal Procedure Code). A non-resident without a permanent establishment in Romania may receive the certificate's data electronically, under an ANAF order (art. 83(5)). A lost certificate is replaced by a duplicate (art. 87(3)).
It depends on the holder: form 010 for legal persons and entities without legal personality, 015 for non-resident entities without a permanent establishment, 020 for individuals with a CNP, 030 for individuals without a CNP, and 700 for online changes and deregistration. ANAF lists all five as approved by OPANAF 1699/2021, as amended.
The tax office replaces the NIF with your CNP and carries over the tax information recorded while you held the NIF (art. 82(1)(e) Fiscal Procedure Code). ANAF's forms list notes that form 030 is also the deregistration return used when a CNP is assigned. Whether you become a Romanian tax resident is a separate question.
Yes. Changes to the registration data are reported within 15 days on the return of changes, the declarație de mențiuni (art. 88(1) Fiscal Procedure Code); if the change is printed on the certificate, the certificate is handed back for a new one. A company changes its identification data at ONRC and its tax vector at ANAF (art. 89).
Use the official lookups: the ANAF VAT register and the ANAF register of inactive or reactivated taxpayers, both searched by fiscal code; the Ministry of Finance company data, searched by CUI; and VIES for the RO VAT code. The EU TIN portal checks only the structure of a natural person's TIN, not whether it exists.
It can. A non-VAT company needs an art. 317 code before buying services from an EU supplier on which it owes Romanian VAT, supplying services to EU businesses, or making an intra-EU acquisition above 10,000 euro (art. 317(1), 268(4)(b) Fiscal Code), and gives it to that supplier or customer. The 395,000 lei ceiling is the separate art. 310 exemption.
The VAT exemption ceiling rose from 300,000 to 395,000 lei on 1 September 2025 (OG 22/2025). Law 239/2025, in force since 18 December 2025, has a controlling SRL stake transfer notified to ANAF within 15 days. This guide reads the Fiscal Procedure Code to OUG 38/2026 and the Fiscal Code to Law 170/2026.