Here is a number that should stop you in your tracks: a software developer in Romania earning 8,000 RON gross per month legally pays zero income tax on that entire salary. Not a reduced rate. Zero. And most Romanian workers — even in tech — have never heard their employer explain exactly how this works or what conditions must be met to keep the benefit.
The Money Romanian Workers Are Leaving on the Table Without Even Knowing It
Most conversations about taxes in Romania start with the complaint: "They take so much from my payslip." In 2026, the standard employee contributions are CAS (pension) at 25 percent and CASS (health) at 10 percent, applied to your gross salary. On top of that sits the standard 10 percent income tax. Add it all up and a regular Romanian employee loses roughly 45 percent of their gross salary before a single leu lands in their account.
But here is what most people never find out: Romania has embedded two powerful legal mechanisms directly into the Fiscal Code that can dramatically reduce — or completely eliminate — that income tax burden. One is the IT tax exemption. The other is the micro-enterprise tax regime. They are not loopholes. They are written into law. And your employer, your accountant, or even your HR department may never volunteer this information unless you ask specifically.
The stakes are real. As a general rule, the minimum wage in Romania is revised each year in January, with the possibility of a revision in July. In 2026, due to concerns raised by employers regarding the socio-economic context, the annual revision was postponed to July, when the gross minimum wage increased from 4,050 RON to 4,325 RON — an increase of around 7 percent. That is the baseline. But if you work in IT, your real question is not the minimum wage — it is how much of your actual salary you are entitled to keep.
What the Law Actually Says
Article 60, point 2 of the Romanian Fiscal Code (Law 227/2015), as amended by Law 296/2023, exempts individuals from income tax on salary income earned from software creation activities, until 31 December 2028, under conditions established by joint ministerial order. The exemption applies at the location of the main employment, for monthly gross income of up to 10,000 RON inclusively.
Employees of companies operating in Romania whose business activity includes software creation — specifically under CAEN codes 5821, 5829, 6201, 6202, and 6209 — qualify for the income tax exemption under Article 60, point 2 of Law 227/2015, provided certain cumulative conditions are met: the position held must correspond to the list of qualifying occupations, and other employer-side criteria must be satisfied.
In plain terms: if your employer's company has one of those five CAEN activity codes, your role involves actual software creation, and your gross monthly salary does not exceed 10,000 RON, your employer is required by law to apply zero income tax at the source. You do not apply for it separately. It is not a rebate. It is simply not deducted. The catch? The exemption applies monthly only for salary income obtained from software creation activity, based on an individual employment contract, service report, delegation or secondment act, regardless of when the person was hired. You must genuinely be working in software creation. The role must match the qualifying occupation list. Your employer must verify and apply it correctly — and if they are not doing so, that is money you are losing every single month.
The Real Numbers for 2026
From 1 January to 30 June 2026, Romania's gross national minimum wage is 4,050 RON per month. From 1 July 2026, it rises to 4,325 RON gross per month, per Government Decision HG 146/2026. Here are all the key verified figures for 2026:
| Category | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum wage (Jan–Jun 2026) | 4,050 RON gross/month | HG 1506/2024, legislatie.just.ro |
| Minimum wage (Jul–Dec 2026) | 4,325 RON gross/month | HG 146/2026, legislatie.just.ro |
| Employee pension contribution (CAS) | 25 percent | ANAF D112 structure, anaf.ro |
| Employee health contribution (CASS) | 10 percent | ANAF D112 structure, anaf.ro |
| Employer labour insurance (CAM) | 2.25 percent | ANAF D112 structure, anaf.ro |
| Standard income tax rate | 10 percent | Art. 64, Codul Fiscal, anaf.ro |
| IT income tax exemption ceiling | 10,000 RON gross/month | Art. 60 pct. 2, Law 227/2015 |
| IT exemption valid until | 31 December 2028 | Law 296/2023, legislatie.just.ro |
| Micro-enterprise tax rate (up to €60,000 revenue) | 1 percent | Art. 51(1)(a), Codul Fiscal, anaf.ro |
| Micro-enterprise tax rate (above €60,000 or specific CAEN) | 3 percent | Art. 51(1), Codul Fiscal, anaf.ro |
| Micro-enterprise 2026 revenue eligibility cap | 100,000 euro | ANAF Cluj, April 2026, anaf.ro |
What do these numbers mean in practice for a real person? A Romanian developer earning 8,000 RON gross per month — well below the 10,000 RON ceiling — pays 25 percent CAS (2,000 RON) and 10 percent CASS (800 RON), but zero income tax. Their net salary is approximately 5,200 RON. A comparable employee outside the IT exemption on the same gross pays an additional 800 RON per month in income tax — that is 9,600 RON per year straight out of their pocket. Do not leave this money on the table.
What Your Employer Will Never Tell You
This is where workers get caught out. The IT exemption is not automatic in the sense that your employer must actively verify and apply it. The employees of companies whose object of activity includes software creation under the listed CAEN codes benefit from the income tax exemption, provided all cumulative conditions are met. If your employer has not registered the correct CAEN code, or if they have not confirmed that your specific role qualifies, the exemption may not be applied — and unless you check your payslip line by line, you will never notice.
Here is what you can do right now. First, ask your HR or payroll department to confirm in writing that the IT income tax exemption is being applied to your salary and that your job is classified under one of the five qualifying CAEN codes. Second, check your monthly payslip: the line for "impozit pe venit" should show zero if the exemption applies. If it shows any positive amount and you work in software, demand a written explanation. Third, if you believe the exemption is not being applied correctly, you have the right to file a complaint with ANAF (the National Tax Administration) via their portal at anaf.ro, or seek a written fiscal ruling (soluție fiscală individuală anticipată) to clarify your status.
If you are a freelancer, a consultant, or someone who is structuring their income through their own company rather than an employment contract, the micro-enterprise regime is the second major legal lever available to you. Micro-enterprises with revenues that do not exceed 60,000 euro are taxed at 1 percent of total revenues. In 2026, a Romanian legal entity can apply the micro-enterprise taxation system if, at 31 December 2025, it recorded revenues that did not exceed the equivalent in RON of 100,000 euro. That is a lower ceiling than the previous year — the limit dropped from 250,000 euro to 100,000 euro as of 1 January 2026 — so if you are already in this regime or considering it, this change is critical to understand now.
Romania vs The Rest of Europe
Context matters, and the honest picture is mixed. As of 1 January 2026, Romania's minimum wage of €795 places it below the €1,000 threshold, alongside Bulgaria (€620), Latvia (€780), Hungary (€838), Estonia (€886), Slovakia (€915), Czechia (€924) and Malta (€994). In 8 other EU countries, minimum wages ranged from €1,000 to €1,500, while in the remaining 6 — France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, and Luxembourg — minimum wages were above €1,500 per month. Romania's nominal position near the bottom of the EU table is real and should not be dismissed.
However, the IT exemption fundamentally changes the effective take-home calculation for a large segment of Romania's workforce — and no comparable blanket income tax exemption for IT workers at this scale exists in Bulgaria, Hungary, or Poland. Romania's employer social contribution burden (CAM) at 2.25 percent is described as the lowest in the EU, which also makes it a significantly cheaper country to be employed in from a total cost perspective. When you combine zero income tax with a 2.25 percent employer contribution burden, a Romanian IT worker earning 8,000 RON gross retains a higher proportion of their salary than many equivalent workers in higher-wage EU countries where income tax rates start at 20 to 32 percent from the first euro.
How to Claim What You Are Owed
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Verify your CAEN code. Ask your employer or check the company's registration at the Oficiul Național al Registrului Comerțului (ONRC) at onrc.ro. Your employer's registered CAEN code must be one of: 5821, 5829, 6201, 6202, or 6209 for the IT exemption to apply.
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Confirm your job title qualifies. The ministerial order (Ordin 20463/2023, available at legislatie.just.ro) includes an annex listing the specific occupations and activities that qualify. Check that your job title or fișa postului matches one of these roles. If it does not — even if you write code every day — the exemption may not be applied.
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Audit your payslips for the current year. Open every payslip since January 2026 and find the "impozit pe venit" line. If you qualify and it shows a non-zero figure, you are likely owed a reimbursement. Contact your payroll department immediately, then file a correction via ANAF's electronic platform at e-anaf.ro.
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Check the micro-enterprise revenue threshold if you operate your own SRL. The 100,000 euro revenue cap for 2026 is verified based on cumulative revenues from the start of the fiscal year, including revenues of linked enterprises where applicable. If you are approaching this limit mid-year, plan ahead — once exceeded, you switch to standard corporate tax for the quarter in which the limit was crossed.
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Use the EuroDuty tools to calculate your real net salary — including with and without the IT exemption — and compare your situation to workers in other EU countries. The free salary calculator lets you input your exact gross and contributions, and the salary comparator shows you how Romania stacks up across all 27 EU member states.
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If in doubt, request a fiscal ruling. ANAF allows individual taxpayers and employers to request a written advance tax ruling (soluție fiscală individuală anticipată) clarifying how the law applies to their specific situation. Submit your request via anaf.ro — it is legally binding once issued.
Calculate your exact net salary and compare your rights across all 27 EU countries at EuroDuty — completely free.
Frequently Asked Questions
Employees of companies operating in Romania whose business activity includes software creation under CAEN codes 5821, 5829, 6201, 6202, or 6209 may benefit from the income tax exemption, provided their specific role is listed in the qualifying occupations annex and all cumulative conditions set out in the joint ministerial order are satisfied. The exemption applies to salary and salary-equivalent income earned from software creation activities until 31 December 2028, and covers monthly gross income of up to **10,000 RON**.
The IT exemption applies only to the portion of gross monthly salary up to **10,000 RON**. Income above this ceiling is subject to the standard 10 percent income tax rate. CAS at 25 percent and CASS at 10 percent continue to apply to the full gross salary regardless. If you earn 12,000 RON gross, the first 10,000 RON is tax-free, and you pay 10 percent income tax only on the remaining 2,000 RON — so 200 RON in income tax rather than 1,200 RON. The saving is still very significant.
The revenue ceiling for qualifying as a micro-enterprise dropped to the equivalent of 100,000 euro beginning 1 January 2026, and this threshold is verified by cumulating the revenues of the Romanian legal entity with those of linked enterprises. The previous ceiling was 250,000 euro. The tax rate remains 1 percent for micro-enterprises with revenues not exceeding 60,000 euro, and 3 percent for those above 60,000 euro or carrying out certain restricted activities. If your company was previously in the micro regime on the basis of revenues between 100,000 and 250,000 euro, you are no longer eligible from 2026.
No. The income tax exemption under Article 60, point 2 of Law 227/2015 applies to income obtained from software creation based on an individual employment contract, service report, delegation or secondment act. This means you must be an employee under a standard employment contract to benefit. Freelancers operating as PFA or through their own SRL structured as a micro-enterprise follow different rules — specifically the 1 or 3 percent micro-enterprise tax on revenues, not the IT salary exemption.
After the scheduled January 2026 increase was postponed, the Government set by Government Decision No. 146/2026 the new gross minimum wage to **4,325 RON** for full-time employees, taking effect from **1 July 2026**. From 1 January to 30 June 2026, the gross national minimum wage remained at 4,050 RON per month, unchanged from 2025. The construction sector has a separate, higher minimum wage of 4,582 RON, confirmed in the official ANAF D112 specification document for 2026.
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