Tax on shares and dividends in Romania: a guide for foreign residents

Are you tax resident in Romania?

Romania taxes its residents on their income from everywhere. Under the Tax Code you are resident if your home (domicile) is in Romania, if the centre of your vital interests is here, or if you are present in Romania for more than 183 days in any 12-month period that ends in the tax year. If another country also treats you as resident, the tax treaty between the two countries decides, and a certificate of tax residence proves it. A foreigner who moved here during the year can be resident for only part of it.

The rates for 2026 and 2025

At a foreign broker the tax is on the net gain of the year: losses on some sales reduce the gains on others. The cost of shares is the weighted average purchase price, which the law requires.

Interactive Brokers and Trading 212

Neither broker withholds Romanian tax, so everything is declared by you. In the form, gains go under income from abroad, code 2012, with the country of the broker company that holds your account: Ireland for Interactive Brokers and Cyprus for Trading 212. Dividends go under code 2018 and interest under code 2017, each with the country of whoever paid it: the United States for Apple, Ireland for an ETF domiciled in Ireland.

The Romanian guides for Interactive Brokers and Trading 212 say which report to download.

Converting to lei: the BNR annual average

Income from abroad is converted to Romanian lei at the BNR annual average exchange rate of the year the income was made, as the Tax Code's implementing rules require. BNR publishes the 2026 average in January 2027; the values for every year are on the BNR annual average page.

Dividends, US shares and the W-8BEN

Tax withheld abroad on a dividend is deducted from the Romanian tax, country by country, up to the Romanian tax on the same income and up to the rate in the tax treaty (article 131 of the Tax Code). For US shares, a W-8BEN form filed with your broker brings US withholding on dividends down from 30% to the 10% treaty rate. Without the form, the prudent reading, which Taxes Support applies by default, is that tax withheld without the treaty is not credited in Romania, so you owe the full Romanian rate; the excess can only be reclaimed from the US tax authority.

The health contribution (CASS)

On top of income tax, Romania charges a health contribution on non-salary income added together: investment gains, dividends, interest and crypto. For 2026, the brackets are 6, 12 and 24 gross minimum wages of 4,050 lei:

• from 24,300 lei: 2,430 lei a year;
• from 48,600 lei: 4,860 lei;
• from 97,200 lei: 9,720 lei.

It is owed even if you already pay health insurance through your salary. Below the first bracket you owe nothing if you are insured another way. The amounts for every year are on the CASS thresholds page.

Losses

A net loss for the year at a foreign broker can be carried forward for 5 years and used against up to 70% of each later year's net gain, but only if you declared it. At a Romanian broker that withholds the tax, losses are neither offset nor carried forward.

Filing: deadline and where

The Declarația Unică for 2026 income is filed and paid by 25 May 2027, online through SPV, the ANAF (Romanian tax authority) online account, using your Romanian personal or tax identification number. The form is in Romanian; the codes above are what you look for in it.

How Taxes Support helps

Taxes Support reads your broker statements, including IBKR and Trading 212, and gives you each amount for the form, per code and per country, with the foreign tax credit and CASS worked out. The rules it applies are on the methodology page (in Romanian). If you also hold crypto, the English guide to crypto tax in Romania explains those rules.

This guide is for information and does not replace personal tax advice.