Reminder: From January 2016 new VAT amendments have been introduced in Romania

2 February 2016

As stated in our article in October 2015, from 1 January 2016 the following amendments to the VAT act will apply in Romania:

• The standard VAT rate being reduced from 24% to 20%, with a planned further reduction to 19% from 1 January 2017.
• The new reduced VAT rate of 5% will be applied to the sale of entry to sports events, museums, castles, historical monuments, fairs, cinemas and cultural events.
• The 5% VAT rate will also be applied to the sale of books, papers and magazines – with the exception of those published mainly for publicity purposes and the supply of e-books.
• The application of a domestic reverse charge mechanism on the supply of buildings and land which are subject to VAT and to the sales of investment gold, mobile phones, integrated circuits (e.g. microprocessors), games consoles, tablets and laptops.