Overview of B2B e-Invoicing (e-Factura) Romania

Originally targeted at B2G requirements, the Romanian government (ANAF) ordained that starting July 2022, all invoices to public administrations had to be submitted to their central electronic invoicing system, ‘RO e-Factura’. Upon receipt in RO e-Factura, the invoice will first be verified, and only in case of a successful validation will it be signed electronically by the Ministry of Finance and be considered a valid invoice. The invoice recipient will subsequently be able to access and download the invoice from the RO e-Factura portal, where it will be stored for the next sixty days.

Also in July 2022, the Romanian government announced that a subset of B2B transactions (between private companies) would need to be reported to the central RO e-Factura system (Emergency Ordinance no. 12/2022). More specifically, all B2B suppliers of products with a high risk of tax fraud and tax evasion were mandated to send their invoices to RO e-Factura electronically. The list of ‘high risk products’ was published and maintained by the Romanian government (ANAF) on a regular basis. As not all Romanian businesses were required to be enrolled in the RO e-Factura system, any suppliers of whom the customer could not receive the invoice electronically, were still obliged to provide it outside of the e-Factura platform as well.

The B2B e-Factura requirements fully kicked in gear starting January 2024. Allowing for a grace period until June 2024, all domestic invoices by both established and non-established, Romanian VAT-registered taxpayers have to be reported to the e-Factura system in near-real time (i.e. within five days of the taxable event). The scope of the requirements nevertheless excludes exports and intra-community transactions. Following the conclusion of the grace period, beginning June 1st, 2024, penalties may be imposed on non-compliant businesses. Large taxpayers may face fines ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 RON (approximately 1,000 to 2,000 EUR), while other taxpayers could incur fines between 500 and 2,500 RON (100 to 500 EUR) if they do not fulfill their legal obligations.

In a second phase (starting July 2024), this “B2B reporting” requirement will be fully expanded to “actual e-invoicing”, by imposing the electronic transmission of invoices on both sender (required electronic submission) and receiver (required electronic receipt or download from the e-Factura platform). For invoicing purposes, the only allowed format will be an electronic one. Contrary to the ‘first reporting phase’, the escalation of the requirements will only pertain to those who have a permanent establishment in Romania.

Romania’s authorization for levying B2B e-invoicing requirements, as obtained from the European Commission (EC), is valid for a three-year period (i.e. until December 2026, or until the European Union decides to adopt the ViDA proposal).

Concerning B2C transactions (between business and end-user), only those performed by “companies operating in tourism and accepting vacation vouchers” will fall into the scope of RO e-Factura (since April 2022).

The chosen electronic invoicing standard is RO_CIUS, a variant of the UBL XML format. The same standard will apply to all transactions (B2G, B2B, B2C). An archiving obligation of 10 years is effective.