It is one of the toughest situations a small entrepreneur can face: ANAF cancels your VAT code, you continue to invoice without VAT — because you are no longer a payer — and a few years later an audit arrives and calculates retroactive VAT that you never collected from customers. Amounts of tens of thousands of euros, for companies that never actually received that money.
The Chamber of Deputies, acting as the decision-making body, adopted on Friday, July 31, 2026, the legislative proposal that cancels these tax assessments. The vote was 276 in favor, 1 against, and 1 abstention.
The legislative path
- The proposal was submitted by a group of parliamentarians, starting from cases reported publicly by entrepreneurs in this situation.
- It received favorable opinions from the Legislative Council and the Economic and Social Council.
- The Senate adopted it, with amendments, on June 24, 2026.
- The Chamber of Deputies gave the final vote on July 31, 2026, in an extraordinary session.
What the law cancels
The law cancels the differences in primary tax obligations representing value-added tax, as well as the related secondary tax obligations — interest and penalties — established by the tax authority through tax assessment decisions.
- The beneficiaries are taxpayers declared inactive or whose VAT registration has been cancelled.
- Period covered: obligations established for tax periods between January 1, 2019, and the date the law enters into force.
The logic is simple and fair: if the state officially treated you as a non-VAT payer, it cannot later penalize you as a payer for the same period.
Who does NOT benefit
The law is not a general pardon. Companies that actually collected VAT from customers or issued invoices with VAT during the period they did not have a valid code remain excluded.
The distinction is essential. The measure targets taxpayers who consistently behaved as non-payers — they invoiced without VAT, did not collect the tax from anyone — and were then assessed as payers. It does not cover those who collected VAT and did not remit it to the budget.
What follows, procedurally
The law does not yet produce effects. For it to apply, three more steps are required:
- promulgation by the President of Romania;
- publication in the Monitorul Oficial (Official Gazette);
- issuance, by the president of ANAF, of the order approving the concrete application procedure — deadline: 30 days from the entry into force of the law.
Only after the publication of the order will it be clear how applications are submitted, what documents must be attached, and how to proceed in the case of amounts already paid.
What you can do in the meantime
- Gather the tax assessment decisions. You need the number, date, and tax period covered by each decision issued on the grounds of VAT code cancellation.
- Check if you qualify. The key question: during that period, did you issue invoices with VAT or collect VAT from customers? If the answer is no, you are in the targeted category.
- Do not stop ongoing appeals. Until the law and procedure are published, the usual procedural deadlines continue to run. An appeal lost due to missing a deadline remains lost.
- Document amounts already paid. If you have partially or fully paid the assessment, it will matter in establishing your situation in the ANAF procedure.
- Discuss with your accountant before making new payments on these decisions, unless you are under enforcement.
Why it matters beyond individual cases
The cancellation of the VAT code was, for years, an administrative sanction with chain effects: loss of the right to deduct, inability to work with certain clients, and then retroactive assessment. For many small firms, the combination was fatal.
The adoption of this law shows a fundamental correction: an administrative sanction should not generate a tax obligation on a tax that was never collected. It remains to be seen how broadly access to the ANAF procedure will be defined.
Article prepared on July 31, 2026, based on the legislative proposal adopted by the Chamber of Deputies. The law was not, at that date, promulgated and published in the Monitorul Oficial. The final text and the ANAF procedure may bring additional clarifications.