Romania's National Agency of Fiscal Administration has published a draft Order on 5 June 2026 to replace Order No. 3735/2015, introducing retroactive advance pricing agreements and substantially expanding documentation, comparability and annual reporting requirements in alignment with Government Decree No. 11/2025 and OECD standards.
Romania’s National Agency of Fiscal Administration (ANAF) has unveiled a draft Order to replace the longstanding procedure governing advance pricing agreements (APAs), which has operated under Order No. 3735/2015 for over a decade.
The proposed changes, now under public consultation following publication on 5 June 2026, reflect evolving international standards and Romania’s movement towards OECD alignment as the country pursues accession to the organisation.
The revision responds to shifts in both legislative frameworks and international transfer pricing practice. ANAF’s approval report highlights the need to strengthen mechanisms preventing double taxation, increase fiscal certainty for taxpayers engaged in related-party transactions, and implement recommendations from OECD BEPS Action 14 on resolving tax disputes.
Applying APAs to prior years
The most significant development is the introduction of retroactive APAs, which permit taxpayers to extend APA coverage to prior fiscal years—up to five years preceding the agreement’s initial effective year. This provision implements amendments introduced by Government Decree No. 11/2025 to the Fiscal Procedure Code, marking a substantial departure from the current framework.
Retroactive eligibility, however, carries rigorous conditions. Taxpayers must demonstrate that past and future transactions remain substantially comparable across multiple dimensions: the object of the transaction and functional analysis, the identity of affiliated parties involved, the absence of material divergence in contractual clauses affecting remuneration, the comparability of the pricing mechanism, and the maintenance of similar allocation of functions, risks and assets between parties.
Where no written contract exists, ANAF will assess comparability based on actual transaction conduct, available supporting documents and the functional analysis of the parties.
Critically, any taxpayer subject to a finalised corporate income tax audit during an overlapping period is automatically excluded from retroactive APA relief. This exclusion prevents parallel dispute resolution and protects ANAF’s audit authority.
Enhanced documentation and stricter comparability standards
The draft mandates significantly expanded filing requirements, substantially increasing the informational burden on taxpayers.
Documentation must now encompass group structure, intra-group transaction detail, transfer pricing adjustments taken, organisational charts and functional structure, reorganisations and restructurings undertaken, comprehensive functional analysis, detailed comparability studies and justification of selected transfer pricing methods and profitability indicators.
For prior-period APAs, these requirements apply separately to each fiscal year covered by the requested retroactive period, compounding the documentation volume. Annual reports must document transaction value, transfer pricing adjustments, changes to business or functional profile, contractual or invoicing-flow variations, confirmation of the approved method, tested party and profitability indicator, cost-base structure composition, and supporting documentation alongside critical assumptions.
For future-transaction APAs, annual reports are filed annually for each covered fiscal year; for prior-period APAs, filing must occur within 90 working days of receiving the agreement notification for each historical year covered.
Procedural reforms and digital transformation
The revised framework formalises and clarifies request handling procedures. Preliminary discussions between taxpayer and ANAF are now expressly structured, and technical meetings may be organised during the analysis phase.
ANAF must respond to requests for additional information within 60 working days, with that period suspended during the taxpayer’s compliance phase. Taxpayers gain explicit rights to review draft agreements before issuance and to submit observations and counter-arguments, strengthening procedural fairness.
Electronic filing through ANAF’s Private Virtual Space (SPV) now applies to both initial APA requests and mandatory annual reports, marking a comprehensive digital transformation that phases out paper-based submissions.
Non-submission of annual reports triggers automatic agreement cancellation for future periods, creating an ongoing compliance obligation.
The draft Order remains subject to public consultation and will take effect only following approval and publication in the Official Gazette.
