Salaries, tax and VAT in Romania
What the state takes, in the two places a visitor or a new arrival actually meets it: off a salary, and off a till receipt. Romanian job offers are quoted gross, and the gap to what lands in the bank is large — a little over 40 percent at ordinary salary levels. VAT is already inside every shelf price and every restaurant bill, so nothing is added at the till. Figures below are for 2026 and dated; treat them as a snapshot rather than a live feed, and check the current law before signing anything.
A salary, gross to net — 2026
| Pension contribution (CAS) | 25% of gross, paid by the employee |
|---|---|
| Health contribution (CASS) | 10% of gross, paid by the employee |
| Income tax | 10% of what is left after CAS and CASS |
| Personal deduction | Reduces the taxable base on lower salaries only; it tapers out above roughly the minimum wage plus 2,000 lei |
| Share reaching the employee | About 58.5% of gross once the deduction no longer applies |
| Minimum wage | 4,050 lei gross January to June 2026; 4,325 lei gross from 1 July 2026 |
| Net at the minimum wage | About 2,699 lei in hand from July 2026 |
| Employer pays on top | 2.25% of gross (CAM), so the employer’s cost is gross × 1.0225 |
| Worked example | 50,000 lei gross → 12,500 CAS, 5,000 CASS, 3,250 tax → 29,250 lei net. Employer cost 51,125 lei |
| Meal tickets | A separate benefit, capped at one per working day, maximum 45 lei each |
Standard case, one employment contract, no dependants, general sector. Construction, IT, under-26 and multi-contract cases follow different rules. Free calculators such as calculator-salarii.ro or salariile.ro handle the usual cases and agree with the arithmetic above; they are private commercial sites, not government ones. The official source is ANAF and the Fiscal Code, and for anything you are about to sign, an accountant or the employer’s payroll.
VAT in Romania — 2026
| Standard rate | 21%, since 1 August 2025 (previously 19%) |
|---|---|
| Reduced rate | 11% — staple food, medicines, restaurant and catering, accommodation, water, books, newspapers, some cultural and recreational services |
| Transitional rate | 9% survives for certain residential property sales until 31 July 2026, then 11% |
| Shown in prices | Included. Shelf and menu prices are what you pay |
| Registration threshold | 395,000 lei of annual turnover |
| Also raised in 2025 | Excise duties on fuel and alcohol, by roughly 10% |
| Dividend tax | 16% from 2026, up from 10% |
Romania was at 24% before 2016, then 20%, then 19% in 2017, and back up to 21% in August 2025. The 5% and 9% reduced bands were merged into a single 11% band at the same time.
Standard VAT across the EU
| Hungary | 27% |
|---|---|
| Finland | 25.5% |
| Croatia | 25% |
| Denmark | 25% |
| Sweden | 25% |
| Estonia | 24% |
| Greece | 24% |
| Ireland | 23% |
| Poland | 23% |
| Portugal | 23% |
| Slovakia | 23% |
| Italy | 22% |
| Slovenia | 22% |
| Belgium | 21% |
| Czechia | 21% |
| Latvia | 21% |
| Lithuania | 21% |
| Netherlands | 21% |
| Romania | 21% |
| Spain | 21% |
| Austria | 20% |
| Bulgaria | 20% |
| France | 20% |
| Cyprus | 19% |
| Germany | 19% |
| Malta | 18% |
| Luxembourg | 17% |
Standard rates only. Nearly every country also runs one or two reduced bands and the category boundaries differ, so this compares headline policy rather than what any particular purchase costs. EU law sets a floor of 15%; the EU average sits near 21.8%. Romania is a little above the middle.
Standard VAT outside the EU
| Norway | 25% |
|---|---|
| Iceland | 24% |
| United Kingdom | 20% |
| Switzerland | 8.1% |
| Andorra | 4.5% |
Switzerland is the European outlier at 8.1%, with 2.6% on food, books and medicines and 3.8% on hotels — the lowest standard rate of any major European economy, and the reason cross-border shopping runs the way it does on its borders. A Swiss increase once planned for January 2026 has been pushed back to 2028. Rates checked August 2026.
Romania