How to pay contractors in Romania

How to choose: four questions for paying Romanian contractors

Money reaches Romania without friction: EUR moves over SEPA and several providers pay out locally in RON. The platform choice comes down to four questions, each with a threshold you can check.

1. Are you paying a PFA or an SRL

Romanian contractors invoice from one of two set-ups. A PFA is the individual, registered as an authorised sole trader and taxed at 10% on net income. An SRL is a company; on the micro-enterprise regime it pays 1% of revenue up to the RON equivalent of €100,000 a year and must have at least one employee (PwC Tax Summaries, reviewed 2026-09-25).

The difference matters for risk rather than for the transfer. The Fiscal Code’s independence test (Art. 7 point 3) is written for individuals, so it bites on PFAs. A micro-SRL that crosses €100,000 during the year pays 16% profit tax from that quarter, which can prompt a request to reprice mid-contract.

If the contractor is an SRL with its own staff: a transfer rail or contractor management platform. If it is a PFA working for you alone: read question 4 before choosing.

2. One contractor or a team

Pricing splits into a percentage of each payout and a flat monthly fee per contractor. On a PFA invoice of €3,000 a month, a 3% fee is €90, well above a $29 or $40 seat; on €600 a month it is €18, below either. So a seat wins for full-time contractors on larger invoices, and a percentage or a pure transfer service wins for small or occasional ones.

Headcount shifts the answer too. One contractor needs a signed contract and a bank or transfer service. A standing team means collecting invoices, checking VAT codes and chasing signatures every month, and a platform that collects invoices and pays in batches earns its fee there.

If you pay one contractor occasionally: a usage-based transfer rail. If you pay a team: a contractor management platform, priced against your real monthly invoice totals.

3. EUR or RON

Romania uses the leu, and the leu has not joined ERM II (European Commission, checked 2026-09-29). A PFA may invoice a foreign client in any currency and records the income in RON at the National Bank of Romania rate on the day it is received (regnet.ro, 12 June 2026, checked 2026-09-29).

• EUR: Romania is a SEPA country (EPC, checked 2026-09-29), so EUR to a EUR IBAN is a standard SEPA credit transfer.
• RON: a foreign payer reaches a RON account through a provider with local payout; Wise, for one, pays RON from its own Romanian account (wise.com, checked 2026-09-29).

USD by SWIFT into a RON account is the route that loses money: the receiving bank converts at its own rate and intermediaries can deduct fees.

If the contract is in EUR: SEPA from an EU account, or any platform with SEPA payout. If it is in RON: a provider with local RON payout at a disclosed rate.

4. How employment-like the engagement is

The Fiscal Code treats an individual’s work as independent only if it meets at least four of seven criteria, among them freedom to choose place, method and hours, freedom to work for several clients, bearing the business risk and using one’s own assets (ANAF, checked 2026-09-29). ANAF can requalify a contract on economic substance and recalculate tax and contributions for up to five years (juridice.ro, checked 2026-09-29).

A PFA on your hours, with your equipment and no other clients, can miss four criteria at once. A PFA delivering scoped projects on its own schedule for several clients passes easily.

If the engagement is genuinely independent: a transfer rail or contractor management platform. If it is independent but you want a third party to hold the contract: a Contractor of Record. 4dev acts as Contractor of Record — the contracting party for each contractor — which reduces reclassification risk. Deel, Rivermate and Mellow sell Contractor of Record products too; read the liability clause in the contract, not the product name. If it is really a job: an Employer of Record such as Deel, Remote, Multiplier, Oyster or Rivermate.

Payout rails into Romania in 2026

Sources: Romania’s SEPA membership from the EPC list of SEPA scheme countries; Wise’s local RON payout and delivery times from wise.com, which reports 95% of transfers arriving in less than a day (both checked 2026-09-29).

No currency control applies: Article 63 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU prohibits restrictions on movements of capital and on payments between member states and third countries (eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-29).

What the Romanian contractor needs to get paid

Most contractors work as a PFA (persoană fizică autorizată), a sole-trader registration under GEO 44/2008, or through a one-person SRL. A PFA:

• Registers its economic activity before trading; any activity carried on permanently, occasionally or temporarily must be registered and authorised (ANAF, checked 2026-09-29).
• Gets an intra-EU VAT code before the first invoice to an EU business, even when it is not a regular VAT payer, and reports those services monthly in form D390 (regnet.ro, 12 June 2026, checked 2026-09-29).
• Stays under or registers for VAT. The small-business exemption threshold is RON 395,000 of turnover from 1 September 2025, up from RON 300,000 (NNDKP, checked 2026-09-29).
• Pays its own tax: 10% on annual net income, declared and paid through the Declarația unică by 25 May of the following year (ANAF, checked 2026-09-29), plus pension (CAS) and health (CASS) contributions.
• Holds a RON or EUR account that matches the invoice currency.

An SRL on the micro-enterprise regime pays 1% of revenue up to the RON equivalent of €100,000 a year (PwC Tax Summaries, reviewed 2026-09-25). Contributions, requalification and IP are covered in our hiring guide.

Documents and tax on your side

VAT. The contractor charges no Romanian VAT on a B2B service to a business abroad. An EU client receives an invoice with the contractor’s Romanian VAT code, its own VAT number and the note “taxare inversă” (reverse charge), and self-accounts for VAT at home; for a client outside the EU the service is not taxable in Romania (regnet.ro, checked 2026-09-29). Check the RO-prefixed number in VIES before the first payment.

Withholding. Nothing to withhold on the Romanian side: the PFA or SRL pays its own tax. For a US payer, pay for personal services is sourced where the work is performed, and foreign-source income paid to a non-resident is not subject to NRA withholding (irs.gov; irs.gov, checked 2026-09-29). The US–Romania income tax treaty, signed on 4 December 1973 and in force since 26 February 1976, lets the US tax a Romanian resident’s independent services only if the person is present in the US for 183 days or more in the year or has a permanent establishment there (Art. 14; irs.gov, checked 2026-09-29). Collect a Form W-8BEN from a PFA (W-8BEN-E from an SRL) and file no 1099.

What to keep, per contractor:

1. The signed services contract with scope, rate, currency and a written IP assignment.
2. Each invoice as issued, with the contractor’s VAT code where one applies.
3. Proof of payment matching each invoice.
4. W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E (US payers), or the VIES check of the VAT code (EU payers).

RO e-Factura and a foreign client

RO e-Factura is Romania’s national e-invoicing system. Under GEO 89/2025, from 1 January 2026 its B2B obligation extends to invoices issued to businesses that are not established in Romania but are registered for Romanian VAT, for supplies whose place is in Romania, and the upload deadline became 5 working days from issue (ANAF, checked 2026-09-29).

A foreign company buying software or consulting services from a Romanian contractor usually meets neither condition. Invoices to EU business clients with a valid VIES number and to clients outside the EU are exempt from the reporting obligation (regnet.ro, checked 2026-09-29). You need no ANAF access of your own.

Where payments to Romania break

• No intra-EU VAT code on an EU payer’s invoice. A PFA below the VAT threshold sometimes invoices without one, although the code is required before the first invoice to an EU business. Your reverse-charge entry then rests on an incomplete invoice; ask for the code before the first payment.
• USD sent to a RON account. The receiving bank converts at its own rate and intermediaries may take fees, so the contractor is short against the invoice. Pay in the invoice currency or use local RON payout.
• Currency mismatch between contract and invoice. The contractor books income at the National Bank of Romania rate on the day money arrives, not the invoice date, so a EUR contract paid in RON leaves open who absorbs the difference. Fix the currency and the conversion rule in the contract.
• A micro-SRL over €100,000. The company moves to 16% profit tax from the quarter it crosses the ceiling (PwC, reviewed 2026-09-25). Payments go through, but a repricing request may follow.
• A first-payout KYC hold. Platforms verify the payer and the contractor before money moves. Collect the PFA’s or SRL’s registration certificate and tax code (CIF) at onboarding, not on payday.
• Requalification of a single-client PFA. A PFA that meets fewer than four of the Fiscal Code’s seven independence criteria can be requalified as an employee, with tax and contributions recalculated for up to five years (juridice.ro, checked 2026-09-29). The transfer itself goes through; the risk sits in the relationship. See contractor misclassification and the Contractor of Record rating.