E-invoicing in Romania: A Complete Guide for Businesses

What is Romania e-invoicing?

Romania operates a clearance-based e-invoicing system called e-Factura, managed by ANAF (Agenția Națională de Administrare Fiscală — National Agency for Fiscal Administration). Under this system, invoices must be submitted to ANAF's e-Factura platform and receive a clearance index number before being considered legally valid.

The B2G (business-to-government) mandate launched in November 2021. The B2B mandate — covering all transactions between Romanian VAT-registered companies — became mandatory from 1 January 2024. Romania is one of the earlier EU states to have fully implemented a real-time B2B clearance model.

Failure to submit invoices via e-Factura within the prescribed timeframe (5 calendar days from the invoice issue date) results in fines under Law no. 296/2023. The fine applies to both the supplier (for non-submission) and, from mid-2024, also to buyers who accept non-compliant invoices.

The e-Factura (UBL 2.1) format

Romanian e-Factura invoices use the UBL 2.1 standard with CIUS-RO constraints. Key technical characteristics:

• Standard: UBL 2.1 with CIUS-RO (Romanian Core Invoice Usage Specification)
• Submission: REST API to ANAF e-Factura (/FCTEL/rest/upload), authenticated with a qualified electronic certificate or SPV (Spatiul Privat Virtual) credentials
• Index number: each accepted invoice receives a unique indexIncarcare (upload index) and an idIncarcare confirming clearance
• Fields: CIF (Romanian fiscal code, equivalent to VAT number) for supplier and buyer, invoice series and number, issue date, tax breakdown per VAT rate, payment method
• Validation: ANAF runs syntactic and semantic validation; rejection responses include error codes and messages in Romanian
• Submission window: invoices must be uploaded within 5 calendar days of the invoice issue date
• Credit notes: use InvoiceTypeCode = 381, must reference the original invoice number in BillingReference
• VAT rates: standard 19%, reduced 9% (food, accommodation) and 5% (books, social housing)

Who does it apply to?

The 5-day upload window means invoices can be issued and delivered to the buyer first, then uploaded to ANAF — this is a post-issuance clearance model, not pre-clearance.

Timeline / key dates

• Nov 2021: e-Factura mandatory for B2G
• Jul 2023: B2B mandate for "high fiscal risk" products (construction materials, vegetables, minerals, etc.)
• 1 Jan 2024: Full B2B mandatory for all Romanian VAT-registered entities
• Jul 2024: Penalties extended to invoice recipients accepting non-compliant invoices

How Clearvo handles Romania e-invoicing

Clearvo generates UBL 2.1/CIUS-RO compliant XML from your CustomerInvoiceInput, submits to ANAF's e-Factura API, polls for the clearance index, and returns the result. The 5-day submission window is tracked per invoice — Clearvo queues and retries submissions during ANAF maintenance windows.

Key points:

• The ANAF clearance index (idIncarcare) is returned in the response and must be stored — it is the legal proof of compliance
• ANAF responses are in Romanian; Clearvo translates error codes to English in the API response
• Credit notes must include correctionOf.invoiceNumber to populate the BillingReference field
• SPV credentials are not required — Clearvo authenticates via qualified certificate held on your behalf

What you send: standard invoice fields plus supplierCif, customerCif, and buyerCountry: "RO".

What you get back: ANAF index number, clearance status, and the UBL 2.1 XML.

{
  "invoiceNumber": "INV-2024-00567",
  "invoiceSeries": "INV",
  "issueDate": "2024-06-15",
  "dueDate": "2024-07-15",
  "currency": "RON",
  "supplier": {
    "name": "Acme Software SRL",
    "vatNumber": "RO12345678",
    "cif": "12345678",
    "address": {
      "street": "Calea Victoriei 100",
      "city": "București",
      "postalCode": "010063",
      "country": "RO"
    }
  },
  "customer": {
    "name": "Romanian Tech Partners SA",
    "vatNumber": "RO87654321",
    "cif": "87654321",
    "address": {
      "street": "Str. Republicii 22",
      "city": "Cluj-Napoca",
      "postalCode": "400015",
      "country": "RO"
    }
  },
  "lines": [
    {
      "description": "Licență software enterprise — Q2 2024",
      "quantity": 1,
      "unitPrice": 12000.00,
      "taxRate": 19,
      "taxCategory": "S"
    }
  ],
  "paymentMethod": "OP",
  "bankAccount": {
    "iban": "RO49AAAA1B31007593840000"
  }
}

Getting started

ANAF e-Factura submission, CIUS-RO field requirements, and the 5-day compliance window are documented at clearvo.io/docs. ANAF provides a test environment (webservicesp.anaf.ro) accessible via the environment: "sandbox" parameter.

Related country guides

• Hungary — RTIR real-time reporting, B2B mandatory
• Poland — KSeF clearance model, mandatory from February 2026
• Slovakia — Peppol BIS 3.0, B2B mandate roadmap